31
Moreover, sports has been a vivid stage of life. Participants (players and spectators) often commit wholeheartedly. Sports time is a time for relieving the suppressed emotions, manners, ... etc. It is a time for reshuffling statuses, performances against those in real life. Participants would play a game in sports as if they were playing it in real life. The values, the rules of the game, the manners of participation in sports all reflect the order of life. As such, depictions of sports events could be taken as mirrors of life. If the concept of face is found in these mirrors, it would be reasonable to infer that it exists in real life.
18
Sports events cover themes that are present in the concept of face. Rewards and punishments in sports correlate with the variable factors and attributes of face. Examples are prestige, recognition, pride, loss of status, embarrassment that would threaten one's identity (Snyder and Spreitzer, 1982: Chapter 5) The functions of sports also find similarities with the working of face and, particularly, with pertinence to the present study are:
1) Identity and self-image of nations;
2) Dominance and propaganda among powers;
3) Recognition of governments,
4) Political sanction through the boycott;
5) Sport as a stage for ideological expression;
6) Sporting image of politicians (Figle1, 1981: Chapter 8)
19
Sport events are preferred to political or economic affairs because they belong to the socio-cultural stratum It is therefore more suited to the study of face which is of a socio-cultural nature. Social-psychological considerations should be more important in the concern of face. In political or economic affairs, political, strategic, economic considerations etc appear to be overarching and may overshadow socio-cultural factors. Hence, it may be difficult to extricate the consideration for face in these affairs
20
More specifically, sports organisations in China are nationalized. They are funded by the bureaucracy The coaches, athletes, supporting staff etc are government employees. They are given government housing, paid by the national treasury etc. The performance of the athletes, the status they gain, could therefore be easily associated with the whole nation and the Government. The face they increase or reduce would have repercussions on the face of the nation and the Government. As this paper concerns the collective face of China at the national level as reported in the press, sports events would provide a suitable pool of data
31
Moreover, sports has been a vivid stage of life. Participants (players and spectators) often commit wholeheartedly. Sports time is a time for relieving the suppressed emotions, manners, ... etc. It is a time for reshuffling statuses, performances against those in real life. Participants would play a game in sports as if they were playing it in real life. The values, the rules of the game, the manners of participation in sports all reflect the order of life. As such, depictions of sports events could be taken as mirrors of life. If the concept of face is found in these mirrors, it would be reasonable to infer that it exists in real life. 18
Sports events cover themes that are present in the concept of face. Rewards and punishments in sports correlate with the variable factors and attributes of face. Examples are prestige, recognition, pride, loss of status, embarrassment that would threaten one's identity (Snyder and Spreitzer, 1982: Chapter 5) The functions of sports also find similarities with the working of face and, particularly, with pertinence to the present study are:
1) Identity and self-image of nations;
2) Dominance and propaganda among powers;
3) Recognition of governments,
4) Political sanction through the boycott;
5) Sport as a stage for ideological expression;
6) Sporting image of politicians (Figle1, 1981: Chapter 8)"
19
Sport events are preferred to political or economic affairs because they belong to the socio-cultural stratum It is therefore more suited to the study of face which is of a socio-cultural nature. Social-psychological considerations should be more important in the concem of face. In political or economic affairs, political, strategic, economic considerations etc appear to be overarching and may overshadow socio-cultural factors. Hence, it may be difficult to extricate the consideration for face in these affairs 20
More specifically, sports organisations in China are nationalized. They are funded by the bureaucracy The coaches, athletes, supporting staff etc are government employees. They are given government housing, paid by the national treasury etc. The performance of the athletes, the status they gain, could therefore be easily associated with the whole nation and the Government. The face they increase or reduce would have repercussions on the face of the nation and the Government. As this paper concerns the collective face of China at the national level as reported in the press, sports events would provide a suitable pool of data
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