Olympic culture shock: When equestrianism gallops to Hong Kong

As a Special Administrative Region of China, Hong Kong was abruptly asked to co-host the 2008 Beijing Olympics with just a single event—equestrianism. This paper seeks to discuss the collective culture shock experienced through the Chinese consumption of the Olympic movement, which has been described as the hallmark of western culture. It focuses on how the brusque consumption process connects and clashes with the Hong Kong culture, and brings a crucial reflection to the transnational promotion of the Olympic movement (“when West meets East”) for the fifth time in Olympic history.

With Olympism and nationalism as theoretical underpinnings, the present research seeks to adopt Adler’s (1975) five stages of culture shock to illustrate the Hong Kong community’s experience with the co-hosting process, namely, honeymoon, disintegration, reintegration, autonomy, and independence. This study adopts a qualitative approach based on 30 dialogues with key Olympic stakeholders, staff, teachers, volunteers, and students in the form of individual in-depth interviews, focus groups, and an ethnographic fieldwork from the perspective of a selected volunteer at the Olympic equestrian event in Hong Kong.

The initial excitement about the opportunity to co-host the equestrian event as a result of the principle of “One Country, Two Systems” represented the honeymoon stage. Meanwhile, the tripolar communication of Olympic messages amidst the exaggerated popularization of equestrianism, the promotion of Chinese nationalism, and the global ideologies of Olympism were illustrated in the culture shock stages of disintegration, reintegration, and autonomy, respectively. The stage of independence in the conclusion aptly highlighted the sustainability of these efforts, and provided a crucial reflection of the Olympic legacy—the cross-cultural transition that the Olympic movement brings to the small Chinese city of Hong Kong.