Champion of the Country: Mediated Sports Game Watching and National Identity Construction for the Chinese Diaspora

This study explores how watching international sports is related to the identity of overseas Chinese. Starting from the social significance of mediated sports, the article constructs its conceptual framework through the symbolic power of sports, media events, imagined community, networked publics, and characteristics of the diasporic community. Based on this, the study carried out 10 interviews on the Chinese diaspora in the United Kingdom, summarized the mechanisms and ways of linking mediated sports with national unity, and revealed the factors that will probably cause change to this connection. The results show that the symbolic power of sports and the consciousness as Asian are ties of diaspora identity construction and form patriotism in sporting contexts. Meanwhile, the degree of integration into local society and their community preference are influencing the status of collective identity enhancement brought by mediated sports.