The Practical Wisdom of Aristotle in the Era of Postmodernism (Managing China’s Sports Reform)

Abstract

The end of the twentieth century was marked by the extensive and explosive development of two directions in the economy and culture of society — globalization and postmodernism. The postmodern is an aggressive and protest reaction to a modernist style. Modernists believed up to nowadays that reason, science, progress, self-sacrifice, respect are eternal values. However, the creation of a global consumer society, informatization, the development of new technologies, the Internet spread, mobile communications, social networks contributed to the emergence of new relations associated with the rejection of traditional values. The economy is being actively taken root into the culture of consumption in the service industry. Fashion, style, behavior standards, brands have become a commodity. Postmodern crosses culture to commerce, with consumption, liberates and releases instincts. At the same time, the newly-minted cultural mutants are characterized by imaginary identity, indifference and disunity. After the end of the Cold War, postmodernism ideas had been moved ahead over the different countries and continents successfully, until they had stumbled over China. The managerial problem of the human relations and impossibility of their measurement is shown in modern conditions as well as at the time of Platon, Aristotle, Lao-tszy, Confucius, Suntszy, etc. This phenomenon is considered by us by the example of sports development and mass culture in China. In a situation with the penetration of postmodernism into Chinese society, Chinese communist leaders are forced to address the practical wisdom of their ancestors to counter the destruction of national consciousness and the preservation of national identity. Sports has become one of the most accessible, important and capital-intensive mechanisms for the implementation of global projects. Commercialization and capitalization of major sporting mega events has become a part of political activity, national prestige in the international arena for many political systems and independent states. Several case studies illustrate how as well as how Chinese leaders try to preserve national identity and the balance of relations in society in the postmodern era using the example of the development of China’s sports reform.