Beijing 2008 and the Olympic Games in China
Social dimensions, economic impact and spatial strategies

Course #:       CRP 395/679
Instructor:     Thomas H. Hahn (th99)
Where:           106 White Hall    
When:            Tue Fri 2:55 - 4:10
 

Course description and objectives

No other single event in modern history (besides war) is shaping cities and their respective urban fabric so rapidly and decisively as the Olympic Games. Experts estimate that a city’s or a region’s growth is accelerated by ten years, although how to measure success of such mega-events is another issue altogether. In the case of the Olympic Games in East Asia, specifically the Summer Games (Tokyo 1964, Seoul 1988, Beijing 2008), the impact on the host nation can not be underestimated. As Beijing is preparing to host the XXIX Olympic Games in August 2008, the main themes of “Clean”, “Green” and “Hi-tech” are serving as slogans not only for the ancient capital of China, but for the entire country.  

This course combines three modes of analysis: Social, economic, and spatial. It will be examined how the Games were and are used to boost not only the economy, but also the image of a nation and a city; how this image is translated into a variety of tangibles and intangibles; how social changes occur (and in fact are engineered) in the years leading up to the Games, and how these changes are sustained in legacy mode. Finally, the course will critically survey the spatial and infrastructure changes that inherently are part of all Olympic Game-“plans” for the host city.   

Resources to be surveyed in this course will include works mainly in English on the history of sport and physical culture in East Asia, and China in particular; reports and press releases by the International Olympic Committee and the respective organizing committees of Japan, Korea and China; coverage of the Games in the media; studies on architecture and urban planning related to the events; economic indicators and city-specific statistical data.  

Date Session Subjects discussed
1/22 1 Introduction to the objectives of this course
1/25 2

Lecture: David Westendorff: Whither the Right to Adequate Housing in Urban China in the Era of Mega-Projects; (Goldwyn-Smith, E. Hollis Auditorium, 3pm)

General discussion with D. Westendorff about the Olympic Games in China

1/29 3

Introductory lecture: Global Planning for the People's Games - Image construction, urban development, and the Olympics in Beijing 2008

Discussion of the course syllabus/structure/timetable

2/1 4 The Games and the Polity - Paradigms and Key Objectives

Readings:
The Olympic Charter (PDF document on the IOC website)

Georgoulas, Stratos: From Dawn to Dust: The development of classical sports in Greece - an example:
Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences vol.1, no.2, 2007, pp.1-9

Norbert Müller: Olympic Education; UMB lecture series on the Olympics, 2004.

Interesting additional source:
John Milton-Smith: Ethics, the Olympics and the Search for Global Values; Journal of Business Ethics vol. 35 nr.2 (2002), pp.131-142.
2/5 5 Machines or Graceful Bodies? The athletes 'corpus delicati'

Readings:
Roberta Park: 'Cells or Soaring?' - Historical Reflections on 'visions' of body, atheletics and Modern Olympism; International Journal of the History of Sport, vol.24, nr.12 (2007), pp.1701-1723.

John Bale: Space, Place and Body Culture: Yi-fu Tuan and a Geography of Sport;
Geografiska Annaler; Series B, Human Geography vol.78, no.3, 1996, pp.163-171.

G McFee, A Tomlinson: Riefenstahls Olympia: ideology and aesthetics in the shaping of the Aryan athletic body; International Journal of the History of Sport vol.16, nr.2, p.86-106 (1999)
2/8 6 Olympian Modernity - Greek identity and Athens's spatial reconfiguration in 1896

Readings:
John Travlos: Athens after the Liberation: Planning the New City and Exploring the Old
Hesperia, Vol. 50, No. 4, Greek Towns and Cities: A Symposium. (Oct. - Dec., 1981), pp. 391-407

Liao Hanwen & Adrian Pitts: A brief historical review of Olympic urbanization;
International Journal of the History of Sports; vol.23 no.7, Nov. 2006, pp.1232-1252.


Constantinos Georgiadis: The Significance of the Olympic Games for Greece in the 19th Century. Fourth International Symposium for Olympic Research (1998)

James P. Verinis: Spiridon Loues, the modern Foustanela, and the symbolic power of Pallikaria at the 1896 Olympic Games; Journal of Modern Greek Studies, vol.3, 2005, pp. 139-175.
2/12 7 The Games in East Asia - Tokyo 1964, "spatialized"

Readings:
Introduction: 1940 Tokyo and Asian Olympics in the Olympic Movement;
The International Jornal of the History of Sport, Volume 24, Number 8, August 2007 , pp. 955-976(22)

Aso, Noriko. "Sumptuous Re-Past: The 1964 Tokyo Olympics Arts Festival."  Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 10, no. 1 (2002).

Rio Otomo: Narratives, the Body and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics; Asian Studies Review, June 2007, vol.31, pp. 117-132.

Sandra Collins: "Samurai" Politics: Japanese cultural identity in global sport–The Olympic Games as a representational Strategy; The International Jornal of the History of Sport, Volume 24, Number 3, 2007 , pp. 357-374(17)

Interesting additional source:
Hitoshi, Chiba. "1964: An Olympic Year." The Japan Journal, August 2005.

Henry D. Smith: Tokyo as an idea - An Exploration of Japanese Urban Thought until 1945; Journal of Japanese Studies vol.4 issue 1, 1978, pp.45-80.


2/15 8 The Games in East Asia - Seoul 1988, politicized

Readings:
David R. Black; Shona Bezanson: The Olympic Games, Human Rights and Democratisation: Lessons from Seoul and Implications for Beijing; Third World Quartely, Vol. 25, No. 7, Going Global: The Promises and Pitfalls of Hosting Global Games. (2004), pp. 1245-1261.

Jarol B. Manheim: Rites of Passage: The 1988 Seoul Olympics as Public Diplomacy
The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 2. (Jun., 1990), pp. 279-295.

Han Sung-Joo: South Korea in 1988: A Revolution in the Making; Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 1, A Survey of Asia in 1988: Part I. (Jan., 1989), pp. 29-38.

Interesting additional source:

Kim, Chong-gi, et al.: Impact of the Seoul Olympic Games on national development
Seoul: Korea Development Institute,  1989, 102 p.
2/19 9 In Fits and Spurts - A Brief Historical introduction to China and the Olympic Movement 
(
large file: 10.5MB)

Readings:
Andrew Morris: To Make the "Four Hundred Million Move": The Late Qing Dynasty Origins of Modern Chinese Sport and Physical Culture;
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 42, No. 4. (Oct., 2000), pp. 876-906.

James Riordan: Chinese Women and Sport: Success, Sexuality and Suspicion:
The China Quarterly No. 145. (March 1996), pp. 130-152
2/22 10

In Fits and Spurts - A Brief Historical introduction to China and the Olympic Movement (cont.)

2/26 11 Film showing: Shower 洗澡, by Zhang Yang (1999) 
2/29
(sic)
12 Film showing: Shower 洗澡, continued, by Zhang Yang (1999) 

Discussion
about

A) Values
b) Numbers: 5000 vs. 20
c) Neighborhood and urban identities
d) North-South dichotomies
e) Notion of competitiveness
3/4 13 Getting to know Beijing - A city of conflicts

Readings:
Xiao Hu: Preserving the Old Beijing: The first conflict between Chinese architects and the Communist Government in the 1950s; University of Nebraska, History Department, Graduate Conference in the Humanities, Lincoln, Nebraska 2006

Shi, Mingzheng: Must the Walls be torn down? The Cultural Dimension of Urban Planning in China
Planning History [Great Britain] 2000 Volume: 22 Issue:1, Pages: 8-16

Visser, Robin: Spaces of disappearance - aesthetic responses to contemporary Chinese city planning
Journal of Contemporary China 13:39, 2004, pp. 277-301.

3/7 14 Getting to love Beijing II (Phases of urban development)

Readings:
Gaubatz, Piper. China’s Urban Transformation: Patterns and Processes of Morphological Change in Beijing, Shanghai and GuangzhouUrban Studies [Great Britain] 1999, Volume: 36, Issue: 9, pp1495-1521

Wu Liangyong: Planning Greater Beijing and Building a World City – Research in Spatial Development Planning for Beijing-Tianjin-Northern Hebei Region; China City Planning Review 16:1, 2007, pp.22-34.

Yan Song Chengri and Gerrit Knaap (2005): Envisioning Beijing 2020 through sketches of urban scenario

3/11 15 Getting to hate Beijing - A look "under the hood"

Readings:
Yichun Xie and Frank J. Costa: Urban planning in socialist China : Theory and practice
Cities, Volume 10, Issue 2, May 1993, Pages 103-114

Abramson, Daniel B: The Aesthetics of City-Scale Preservation Policy in Beijing
Planning Perspectives [Great Britain] 2007 22(2): pp.129-166.

Yan Zhang and Ke Fang: Politics of Housing Redevelopment in China: the Rise and Fall of the Ju'er Hutong project in inner-city Beijing. Journal of Housing and the Build Environment 2003, vol. 18, pp.75-87
3/14 16 Getting newly disoriented in an old city - A quick survey of Beijing's hypermodern architecture
3/15 to 3/24
Spring break 
3/25
17 The Games and economic impact studies  - On the complex relationship between guihua 规划 and jihua 计划
...and as a (necessary) diversion: The Games, Tibet and Political Impact Studies.
See
International Herald Tribune
Financial Times
LA Times
Xinhua Net Special Report on Tibet

(Regular) Readings:

Jeffrey G. Owen: Estimating the cost and benefit of hosting Olympic Games - What can Beijing expect from its 2008 Games? 5. The Beijing Olympic Committee's website (in English)
The Industrial Geographer vol.3, issue 1, 2005, pp.1-18
And a Chinese critique of the views expressed in the above article posted on a blog Dec.15, 2007.

Jieming Zhu: Urban Physical Development in Transition to Market - The case of China as a transitional economy; Urban Affairs Review (2000), vol.36:2, pp.178-196.

Gary Sigley: From guihua to jihua - A preliminary critique of approaches to understanding "Governance" in a Chinese context; presented at the Annual Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (2006).

Cindy Fan: China's 11th Five-year plan - From "Getting Rich First" to "Common Prosperity"; Eurasian Geography and Economics (2006), vol.47:6, pp. 708-723
3/28 18 The city from below - social equality, the migrant worker and urban villages in Beijing 2008

Readings:
Li, Stanton, Fang & Lin (2006). Social Stigma and Mental Health among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China: A Conceptual Framework and Future Research Needs. In: World Health Popul. vol.8:3, pp.14-31.

Smith, Christopher J.; Himmelfarb, Katie M.G.: Restructuring Beijing's Social Space: Observations on the Olympic Games in 2008;
Eurasian Geography and Economics, Volume 48, Number 5, September 2007 , pp. 543-554(12)

Shenzhen: Migrant Worker's Homes burned as "Illegal Structures"
Zhang Junyan in the China Digital Times, Sept. 1, 2007

Yang Hengjun's blog on an incident involving migrant workers in Beijing
China Digital Times, Feb. 15, 2008

Additional reference:
Fan Jie and Wolfgang Taubmann: Migrant Enclaves in Large Chinese Cities.
The New Chinese City; ed. John R. Logan, Blackwell, Oxford 2002, pp. 183-197.
4/1 19 Sports Mega-events in Theory and Practice (Symbolic Integration and Impact Measurement)

Readings:
F. Munoz: Olympic urbanism and Olympic Villages: planning strategies in Olympic host cities, London 1908 to London 2012; Sociological Review 2006, vol.54, suppl.2, pp.175-187

David Black & Janis Van Der Westhuizen: The Allure of Global Games for 'Semi-Peripheral' Polities and Spaces: A Research Agenda; Third World Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 7, Going Global: The Promises and Pitfalls of Hosting Global Games. (2004), pp. 1195-1214

Interesting additional source:
Lai Chee-Kien: Concrete-Concentric Nationalism - The Architecture of Independence in Malaysia, 1949-1969; chapter 4, pp.165-186: Spectacles for Comparison - Urban Sports in Southeast Asia (Ph.D. thesis, U of California at Berkeley, 2005; linked with permission of the author)
4/4 20 Evaluation of the designs for the Beijing Olympic Green

No readings, but multiple references:
- Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning - Presentation of Competition for the Architectural Design of National Stadium (note that some thumbnails don't show, but if you click the full images are still available)

- The Bird's Nest on the Archinform web site

- World Stadiums - Sport Stadiums in China

4/8 21 The National Stadium and other stages of physical performance

Readings:
Anne-Marie Broudehoux (2007). Spectacular Beijing: The Conspicuous Construction of an Olympic Metropolis, in: Journal of Urban Affairs 29 (4) , 383–399

The official overview of the Competition Venues from the BOCOG web site (spatial distribution of venues, photo galleries, news section about the completion status of the sites, architectural renderings and reports)

Online press kit on the National Indoor Stadium (designed by German company Glöckner Architekten GmbH)
4/11 22
Informal class - open discussion
(topic: Urban Spaces of Performance, Stages of Spectacle)

4/15 23 Mega, the Olympic Masses and Beijing's future transportation infrastructure

Urban lifestyle contexts: The Beijing Boom Tower , the Looped Linked Hybrid , the Bubble Box and related Beijing/China mega-structures

Beijing's future mass transportation concepts - one (futuristic) example:
D-Rail
Beijing Action Plan - Transportation Construction and Traffic Management Plan
UNEP Report on Transportation ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games
4/18 24 Environmental and "green" dimensions of the recent Olympic Games I

Readings:
Michael Letters, Hart Cantelon: The Making of the IOC Environmental Policy as the Third Dimension of the Olympic Movement;
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp.294-308 (2000)

Beijing's Commitments to "Greening the Olympics" as part of the application documentation.

Benny Peiser, Thomas Reilly:
Environmental factors in the Summer Olympics in Historical Perspective; Journal of Sports Sciences (2004), vol.Volume 22, Issue10, pages 981 - 1002 . 

United Nations Environment Programme UNEP: BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES - AN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW ; 2007 (Attention: large file)
4/22 25 Environmental and "green" dimensions of the recent Olympic Games II

Readings:
Olympic Chances,
by Orville Schell (in: China Dialogue, April 16, 2008)


Additional reading (worth it):
Governing through Environment (Huanjing): Sustainability, Value, and City Building in Dalian, China
Lisa Hoffman, U Wash, 2006 CPN conference proceedings, pp. 43-53; (larger file=6.5MB)

4/25 26 Presentation by journalist and author

Wang Jun 王军 (Beijing):
For the Greener Good - Planning for a Chinese century

2pm, A.D. White House, Guerlac Room
4/29 27 Legacy mode - A measure of the post-Olympic dimensions

Readings:
Richard Cashman: Olympic Legacy in an Olympic City: Monuments, Museums and Memory.
4th International Symposium for Olympic Research (1998)

BOCOG News: Beijing to build the Convenient Olympic Village (about the OV in legacy mode)

BOCOG News: WHO sees health as legacy from Games (Feb. 14, 2008)

Looking ahead: London 2012 and the Legacy discussion

Amnesty International: What Human Rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics? (April 1, 2008)
5/2 28 Preparing for the final exams

Virtual windows into China's professional planning communities, the Olympic Movement, and related sites
1. China Urban Planning net
2. Urban Planning Society of China (founded 1956)
3. China Association of City Planning (founded 1994)
4. Asian Planning Schools Association (founded 1993)
5. The Beijing Olympic Committee's website (in English)
6. Around The Rings  (Independent reporting on the the Olympic Games; in English)
7. Burb.tv (explore at your own peril)