TY - JOUR
T1 - A Historical Review of Elite Sport Development in Hong Kong
AU - Wu, Wen
AU - Lau, Patrick Wing Chung
AU - ZHENG, Jinming
N1 - Funding Information:
As noted above, sports activities including training, equipping, and competing overseas were primarily under the aegis of the organizations themselves. For instance, the funds of the Amateur Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong contained the annual subscription of a certain amount of money from its affiliated associations and its own way of raising financial support. In the 1950s, to raise funds to compete in the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games, the President of the ASF&OC wrote some letters appealing for government assistance, yet the funds that the governments promised to furnish were insufficient because of the government’s lukewarm attitude towards involvement in sports activities. Additionally, the Federation also resorted to appeals to wider society for support. Most notably then President of ASF&OC Mr. Kwok Chan wrote to the community to ask for the donations and support of all sports-loving individuals. However, the organization was still devoid of funds, and the federations continued to seek assistance from the government from time to time. It was not until 1970 that a donation of HK$3 million was distributed by the Governor to ‘establish the Sir David Trench Fund for Recreation for the provision of recreational, sporting, cultural, and social activities and related purpose with the aim of encouraging the meaningful use of leisure by young people’. This was the first official funding specifically for recreation and sport; and it remains significant funding sources until the present day.
Funding Information:
Despite the aforementioned achievements made by the ASF&OC, sport development remained at the margins of the policy agenda of the colonial Hong Kong government. In the 1950s and 1960s, local non-governmental organizations had sprung up, and the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association, Softball Association, Hockey Association, Badminton Association, and other sports associations had been established consecutively and later became subordinate members of ASF&OC. However, because of a lack of financial support and official trials, athletes had to raise funds by themselves or seek financial support from the chairman of sports organizations.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Hong Kong, one of the most visible non-sovereign entities on the international stage, has a distinctive profile as a previous British colony and current Special Administration Region (SAR) of China with the retention of an independent sporting status. However, research on elite sport development in this region remains relatively uncharted territory. This study provides a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s elite sport development since 1842, specific to four phases identified, namely the infancy of sport (1842–1950), the inception but slow development of elite sport (1950–1973), the rapid growth of elite sport (1973–1997), and further expansion of elite sport development (1997–2019). The discussion of each of these periods will follow the same structure: political context, government sports structure, financial support, and high-performance achievements (i.e. at the Olympic Games and other major competitions). This paper is expected to provide a unique and in-depth context for further studies concerning policy analysis and governance study particularly for non-major Olympic participants with a relatively distinctive political and sporting status.
AB - Hong Kong, one of the most visible non-sovereign entities on the international stage, has a distinctive profile as a previous British colony and current Special Administration Region (SAR) of China with the retention of an independent sporting status. However, research on elite sport development in this region remains relatively uncharted territory. This study provides a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s elite sport development since 1842, specific to four phases identified, namely the infancy of sport (1842–1950), the inception but slow development of elite sport (1950–1973), the rapid growth of elite sport (1973–1997), and further expansion of elite sport development (1997–2019). The discussion of each of these periods will follow the same structure: political context, government sports structure, financial support, and high-performance achievements (i.e. at the Olympic Games and other major competitions). This paper is expected to provide a unique and in-depth context for further studies concerning policy analysis and governance study particularly for non-major Olympic participants with a relatively distinctive political and sporting status.
KW - elite sport
KW - historical review
KW - Hong Kong
KW - periodization
KW - political context
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105353436&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09523367.2020.1826442
DO - 10.1080/09523367.2020.1826442
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105353436
VL - 37
SP - 1777
EP - 1806
JO - International Journal of the History of Sport
JF - International Journal of the History of Sport
SN - 0952-3367
IS - 17
ER -