The Spread of Karate in the People’s Republic of China: Preliminary Analyses by Factors of Encounter, Motivation, and Influence

Abstract

Karate was introduced to China and began to spread in 1990. The Chinese Karate Association was established in 2008. Karate was promoted to an official National Games event in 2017. Today, karate dojos across China have increased to more than 20,000. What factors have supported this rapid development? Previous studies have found practical and ideological factors from the perspective of fixed-point observation based on questionnaire surveys. In contrast, this study conducted a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. It analysed interview responses from the perspective of chronological change in terms of encounter, motivation, and influence. The results revealed that those who began karate mainly for pragmatic reasons gradually realized their spiritual growth with the cultivation of their personalities. This study suggests that the gradual transformation from realist to idealist is the factor that must be taken into account in explaining the rapid development of karate in China.

Keywords:

• Karate
• sports culture
• budo
• China
• personality development

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jinwen Xie

Jinwen XIE is a PhD candidate in the Department of the Graduate School of Sport Sciences at Waseda University. His main area of expertise is sports culture.

Chang Liu

Chang LIU is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Physical Education, International Budo University in the Department of the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Waseda University in Japan. His main area of expertise is the history of Chinese Martial Arts.

Kohei Kawashima

Kohei KAWASHIMA received his PhD in history at Brown University, USA, in 1992. He is a Professor in history of sport and anthropology of sport at the Graduate School of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan.