Modern physical education and sport in China are not products of indigenous Chinese culture. Traditional Chinese culture linked strenuous physical activities to low class and status. Modern Western PE and sport were introduced to China by Western Christian missionaries and directors of the Young Men's Christian Association, and grew from a tool for Christian evangelism to an important tool for Chinese nation-building. This book examines this process of transformation of Chinese attitudes toward PE and sport, using the concepts of cultural imperialism and nationalism as a lens to understand how a Western cultural import became a modernization tool for the Chinese state.

Hujie Zhang is a lecturer at Jiangxi Normal University, China. Her main research interests are in the areas of sports history, especially in Christian involvement in sport in modern China and traditional sport.

Fan Hong is Professor in Asian Studies and the Deputy Dean of Bangor College, Bangor University in UK. Her main research interests are in the areas of culture, politics, gender and sport and she has published extensively in these areas.

Fuhua Huang is a lecturer at Jiangxi Normal University. His main research interests are globalization and sport, professionalization and commercialization of sport, sport history and traditional sport.

Introduction 1. Christianity and Modern Sport: a Cross-cultural Context 2. Christian Missions and the Emergence of Western Physical Education and Sport in China (1840-1908) 3. Christian Missions and the Expansion of Western Physical Education and Sport in China (1908-1919) 4. Rising Nationalism and the Diminishing Role of the Christian Institutions in Chinese National Physical Education and Sport (1919-1928) 5. Nationalism and the Indigenization and Modernization of Physical Education and Sport in China (1928-1937) 6. Missionary Schools, the YMCA and the Modernization of Chinese Sport: Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism