Xi Jinping¿s "Soccer Revolution" is unique: the most extensive politicization and geo-politicization of the Global Game. His purpose is to extend the global softpower projection of "the Middle Kingdom": an ancient Western imperial mantra ("bread and circuses") has been replaced by a modern Eastern "imperial" mantra ("rice and pitches"). The Asian Football Federation shares this "allopathic" vision of East Asian soccer: the future is Asia and it starts in China! Soccer is a talisman for a New Asia in a New Era. For China soccer is a hubristic instrument of softpower projection. Softpower, Soccer, Supremacy: The Chinese Dream makes this point forcefully. In East Asia soccer in now "much more than a game"!

J.A. Mangan is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Anthropological Society and Royal Society of Arts, with Fellowships (or their equivalents) at Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford and elsewhere. He is the author or editor of many books including the internationally acclaimed Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School, The Games Ethic and Imperialism and 'Manufactured' Masculinity: Making Imperial, Morality and Militarism. He was Director of the International Research Centre for Sport, Socialisation and Society at Strathclyde University and has lectured worldwide.
Peter Horton is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University and has taught in Britain, Australia, China and Singapore. His research interests include the socio-cultural analysis of historical and contemporary dimensions of sport, physical education and health. In recent years his research and writing have been centred upon the politics, cultures and societies of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. His recent significant publications include Manliness and Morality: The Mangan Oeuvre¿Global Reflections on J.A. Mangan¿s Studies of Masculinity, Imperialism and Militarism and Japanese Imperialism: Politics and Sport in East AsiäRejection, Resentment, Revanchism (edited with J.A. Mangan, Tianwei Ren and Gwang Ok).
Christian Tagsold has a Heisenberg Position in the Department for Modern Japan, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He has published broadly on sports mega-events in Japan. Together with Andreas Niehaus he edited Sport, Memory and Nationhood in Japan: Remembering the Glory Days. His other research interests include the aging society in Japan and Japanese gardens in the West. His latest book Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West was awarded the Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize in 2019 by the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

List of Tables - Acknowledgements - J.A. Mangan: Prologue: Xi's Chinese Dream: "Rice and Pitches" ('¿¿¿¿¿')-Imperial Strategies - Li Jinning/Keiko Ikeda: China, Politics and Soccer: The Era of the Cultural Revolution-The Immediate and Eventual Consequences for "The Chinese Dream" - Jiahao Hu: Chinese Sports Diplomacy: Intentions, Innovations, and Impediments-The Background to the BRI and BRICS Initiatives - Tobias Zuser: Building a Successful Superhighway: Soccer Revolution and the Realization of the Chinese Dream-An Overview - Emma Lupano: Dreams: The Pursuit of Consensus and the Display of National Power-Chinese Soccer Softpower Narratives - Leah (Xiufang) Li: Positive Projection: Soccer and Xi's Softpower Strategy-Branding, Intention, Ambition, and Assertion - Tobias Zuser/Lawrence Ka-ki Ho: "The Chinese Dream": Neglected Dimension-Who Is Chinese?Multi-Ethnic Soccer Representation - Tzu-hsuan Chen/Alan Bairner: Crossing the Penalty Area? The Dynamics of Chinese/Taiwanese Football - John Connell: Dreams, Desires, and Destiny: Football and Fantasies in China - PART 2: Korean Perspectives - Jong-sung Lee: Failed Diplomatic Tool: Soccer-An Evolving Soft Power Relationship between China and Korea - Kyoungho Park/Gwang Ok: From Chinese Neurosis to South Korean Nightmare: Soccer as a Shifting Barometer of National Self-Confidence - Udo Merkel: Sport as a Nation Branding Tool in Divided Korea: Soccer, Status, and Softpower - PART 3: Japanese Perspectives - Christian Tagsold/Sato Ryohei: Japan and China: Overview-Leagues and Clubs - Christian Tagsold: Meeting Xi's Ambitions with a Critical Eye: Japan's Reaction to China's Football Dreams-A "Further Caveat" - Colm Hickey: "The Guiding Light for the sport in Japan!"-Middlesex Wanderers and the Development of Football in Japan, 1967-2017: Regional Domination? An Anglo-Saxon Heritage of Supremacy to be Respected and Retained? - PART 4: Australian Perspectives - David Rowe/Keith Parry/Bonnie Pang: The China Question and Soccer in Australia - Peter Horton: Blinded by the Light! Hard Ball Disguised as Soccer: Interpreting China's Football Dream-An Australian's Reflection - Steve Georgakis/Andy Harper: Will Xi Jinping's China Soccer Dream Become Australia's Football Nightmare? - J.A. Mangan: Epilogue - Contributors - Index.