Nation Branding through the lens of soccer: Using a sports nation branding framework to explore the case of China

Soccer is seen as an extended instrument to brand China in the postBeijing Olympic period. This paper explores how the brand of China is expressed and negotiated through the lens of soccer by adopting the content analysis method to deconstruct the media texts specific to sports mega-events. The findings show the creation of a number of media frames accompanied by a new tradition in the representation of Chinese national identity, featuring the rhetoric of a “powerful” nation and social prosperity attributed to the projected common goal of elevating China to be a world soccer superpower by 2050. These media frames provide insights into the underlying personalities of the country’s brand, including humiliation, world hegemony, trust, and superiority. We argue that the merit of nation branding in China is more engaged with the inwardly-oriented political exercise aiming at restructuring national identity for the purpose of consolidating the state’s legitimacy and social cohesion. The proposed sports nation branding framework expands critical research scope on nation branding within the context of identity politics in relation to sports. It underlines the significance of strengthening the personality traits of a nation’s brand through developing a thriving soccer culture. Due to the growing importance of soccer in East Asia, this paper has both domestic and regional significance.