One big theme I noticed in this week’s reading was the importance of competitive games to the state, at least in the Chinese state. And I can think of other situations where the competitive nature of sports between countries was incredibly important to the countries involved. As someone who mostly understands European and U.S history I have heard a lot about the Olympics that were held before WWII and the importance that Germans placed on their winning in their heavily nationalistic government. This week offered more information into the East Asian side of competitive sports especially in Susan Brownell’s Training the Body for China which include great quotes like “The bodies of the athletes belong to the nation.” (p. 23) She said this in the sense that the athletes were representing China and its greatness to the world, which still conveys the immense importance of the athletes performing well. Another great moment is when Susan Brownell was quoted as saying “To use the American formula, I want to say, “thank you.” To use the Chinese formula, I want to say I still haven’t done enough!” a quote which I think perfectly encapsulates the mindset that athletes who are serious about the competition have.

I particularly enjoyed the second chapter about the historical aspect of sports in China including the body culture and the discourse about the importance of the strength of the people and how it corresponds to the strength of the nation.

As for the picture of the week I chose the Art of Contest picture of Polo being played by British colonials. Mostly because when I think of polo I think of it as a British game but in the picture they are playing it in India and using the original sticks that the game was traditionally supposed to be played with which shows how little the game has changed since its beginning, although maybe the rules have.