✪ Huang Lu | Department of Physical Education, Hebei Union University
The global flow of sports talents is a significant trend in today's era. However, "sports have no borders, but athletes have a motherland." This sentence is most vividly expressed in international sports events represented by the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup. It is also because of their national nature that these events are often very attractive. And because such events carry the honor of "winning glory for the country", foreign or naturalized sports talents are often more likely to cause controversy. Recently, at the Winter Olympics, some naturalized athletes and coaches coached by transnational coaches have been pushed into the whirlpool of public opinion, triggering widespread controversy at home and abroad, and even encountering online violence.
This paper points out that with the continuous development and growth of competitive sports in the mainland, it is urgent to reasonably analyze the transnational flow of athletes and the phenomenon of "honor outsourcing", and explore the balance between national sentiment and honor pursuit. The authors argue that a distinction should be made between professional sports, which are centered on commercial interests, and elite sports, which are characterized by high competition. In professional sports, the league "mercenary" model and its global development have been widely recognized. But elite sports are more likely to select their own citizens who represent the country's highest level of competition. The national and cultural connotations of elite sports events represented by the Olympic Games and the World Cup are completely different from professional events. In elite sporting events, the motivation of athletes to represent a country is based on a genuine sense of cultural solidarity, love and pride in their homeland. Out of the sense of utilitarianism, the model of directly hiring foreign aid to "win glory for the country" is not only prone to controversy, but also may have a negative impact on the political and cultural ecology.
The authors point out that "honorism" and "medalism" are not rational ways of looking at naturalized athletes. The key is how to integrate into the sense of national borders, balance national sentiments, and resolve social disputes. In addition to the various rights and wrongs, we must see the role that the initiative of national border awareness can play, and think: how to define a country's border in the era of immigration.
This article was originally published in the Journal of Chengdu University of Physical Education, No. 11, 2014, transferred from the "Eurasian Systems Science Research Society", the article only represents the author's own views, and is hereby compiled and distributed for readers to think.
The Issue of National Borders for the Transnational Movement of Athletes: Between Honor Outsourcing and National Sentiment
▍ The transnational movement of athletes is a special form of outsourcing of sports services
(1) Outsourcing development of sports production and services
The English concept of "outsourcing" literally translates to "external procurement" or "external resources", which refers to a management model and business strategy that utilizes and integrates external high-quality resources to achieve cost control, improve efficiency, and enhance their core competitiveness and resilience. Or that the enterprise outsources some non-core, auxiliary functions or businesses to professional service agencies outside the enterprise, thereby improving the overall efficiency and competitiveness of the enterprise, while focusing on those core functions or businesses.
Outsourcing can be simplified into production outsourcing and service outsourcing. Sports production and services have always been the main category of international outsourcing, and also the main manifestations of globalization and outsourcing development. The WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services divides services into 12 sectors and more than 160 sub-sectors, of which "recreational, cultural and sports services" is a major sectoral category. The sports service outsourcing business and strategy show a diversified development trend, such as the outsourcing operation and management of sports venues, the service outsourcing of sports public products, and the human resources outsourcing of professional sports leagues. More broadly understood, the intermediary services provided by sports agents and the recruitment of foreign players in professional leagues can be regarded as a special form of service outsourcing.
Professional sports clubs outsource the business scope of long-term recruitment of sports talents to agencies or agents, and professional sports leagues and event brands outsource the core elements of providing spiritual and cultural products to foreign players or naturalized players. The ultimate operational and management goal of service outsourcing is to maximize the market competitiveness of professional sports clubs or professional sports leagues.
(2) The development trend of "hollowing out" of sports service outsourcing
Traditionally, outsourcing is a labor-intensive industry that is not in the category of a company's core business, because outsourcing the company's core business means that the company will lose its market competitiveness. However, recently, the core business of some enterprises is also being outsourced, such as global enterprises such as Nike and Dell, outsourcing the core business of enterprises, and even high-end activities, including the latest professional knowledge or production skills. This trend at least shows that the core business of the professional sports market can also be outsourced when companies have accumulated a certain first-mover advantage and comparative advantage. In other words, the outsourcing development of sports production and services has entered an advanced stage, that is, with the original capital accumulation effect of capitalism and sports multinational companies, the outsourcing development of enterprises or brands with high "hollowing out" has been realized.
It is worth mentioning that the management goals of any team are either to minimize costs, improve the quality of service and access resources, or in most cases, to recombine these goals to achieve resource integration and thus improve overall competitiveness. In fact, the core business of Nike enterprises is not sporting goods manufacturing technology and production skills, but under the general trend of global cultural economy, enterprises establish highly abstract brand symbol symbols and in-depth communication of brand marketing capabilities, which is Nike's true sense and irreplaceable core competitiveness.
Combined with Nike's development case, it is easy to understand the "hollowing out" development stage of sports service outsourcing. The model of sports service outsourcing is the united states four professional sports leagues, the world football five major leagues and other global brand events, from the perspective of outsourcing of the entire business process, can be divided into sales service outsourcing, human resources outsourcing, financial management outsourcing, intellectual resources outsourcing, asset management outsourcing, administrative management outsourcing, etc., of which as the core element of the supply of sports events——— human resources outsourcing has an important strategic position. Human resources refers to athletes, coaches, referees, managers, scientific researchers, etc., because the human resources group other than elite athletes is in a relatively saturated supply state, or in the subordinate position of the entire league business system, which makes the elite athlete group become the core of the core business of sports service outsourcing. Obviously, for professional sports leagues, elite athletes are alternative production factors, and the core competitiveness in the true sense is the operating mechanism, brand image and business model of professional sports leagues.
(3) The transnational movement of athletes is a special form of outsourcing sports services
Taking the five major leagues of world football as an example, it is impossible for a country to monopolize the supply of athletes, or in terms of the overall competitive level and commercial development quality of the league, it is impossible to cultivate and supply the elite athletes needed by the entire league system, especially for a single star production mechanism in a certain country. This requires a large number of high-level foreign players to enrich the human resources competition base of the league brand. Using Wallerstein's theory of the world system as an interpretive point of view, the "world system" theory refers to the establishment of a series of institutional mechanisms to redistribute all resources from the core layer to the peripheral layer. In this case, the more developed core areas of football (such as Europe) will be tapped from the less developed semi-peripheral areas (such as Central and South America) and the less developed peripheral areas (such as Asia, Africa, North America and Oceania), and the top football talents will flow from the semi-peripheral areas and peripheral areas to the central areas across borders.
Some scholars have been critical of the world system of transnational movement of athletes and have described world football as a highly hierarchical political and economic activity. This political and economic activity was influenced by the colonial process and sustained by relations of economic inequality. World football is generally described as "one center", one center refers to the Western European professional football league market, Western Europe from the semi-peripheral (South America) and peripheral (Africa) to dig up a large number of football talents, and use these talents as raw materials, and then these raw materials are transformed and used for consumption in the central market of Western Europe.
At present, the hegemonic pattern of "center-periphery" of the "world system" formed by the current world football market, and the European professional football free transfer system marked by the Bosman Act, play the role of "bridge" and lubricant institutional mechanism. That is to say, starting from the practice of European commercial sports, supplemented by the universality of values such as "human rights", "freedom" and "privateness", it is gradually pushed to the level of international sports order and international law, aiming to provide legitimacy for the hegemony of the "world system".
The special form of human resource outsourcing, the transnational mobility of athletes, in order to avoid the barriers of the nation-state and the pursuit of cost control and profit maximization, is more realized at the operational level of "natural person mobility". The concept of "movement of natural persons" in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) refers to the entry of a member's service supplier into the territory of another member as a natural person to provide services. There is no bilateral agency or national interest in the movement of athletes across borders, but only individual rights, free will and choice of behavior. Countries at the center of the "world system" use preset institutional mechanisms that meet certain interest requirements to recruit cheap sports talent resources with overwhelming negotiating discourse. The transnational movement of African players to the European professional football market is a case in point. Since the 1990s, a large number of African players have poured into The European football top leagues. Influenced by historical and colonial relations, the network of relationships established by clubs and player agents has played the role of transfer or immigration channels, and African talented young players have been continuously transported to major European football clubs with these scouting networks, and African players have been able to enter clubs that meet their own competitive ability levels to play, and as a springboard for career development, gradually flowing to higher-level clubs, and even growing into star players in the top clubs in the five major leagues of world football. La Liga' highly capitalized, for example, has created an inherent network of scouting relationships, with player agent recruiters widely distributed on all continents, particularly in South America and Africa.
The global recruitment of foreign players from the five major leagues of world soccer is just one important aspect of the outsourcing of human resources for sports. In addition, there is a special outsourcing model that deserves attention, that is, to create a whole industry chain outsourcing model within the limited control of professional sports clubs, which is also regarded as a special form of "cash crop" outsourcing. The main purpose of human resources outsourcing of professional sports clubs is to reduce cost inputs, recruit excellent players at a cheap price, many professional sports clubs recruit cheaper talents from overseas, and minimize the cost of outsourcing labor by establishing the guarantee of relevant institutional mechanisms. Compared with the relatively expensive outsourcing model of directly introducing "finished" players, the human resource outsourcing model of professional clubs establishing training academies in overseas low-cost labor areas has become a strategic choice to meet the requirements of reducing costs.
▍ Honor outsourcing problem in the transnational movement of athletes
The global trend of cross-border movement of athletes as a special form of outsourcing of sports services not only means to stimulate the development of the local sports event economy, but also has more cultural representation at the level of human subjectivity. The types of Sports Migrants are generally divided into five categories, such as Pioneers, Settlers, Mercenaries, Returnees, and Nomadic Cosmopolitan, which are simplified to settlers and mercenaries for ease of discussion. Professional sports generally aim at the pursuit of event viewing and commercial development, and the form of human resources outsourcing is mainly to recruit short-term league "mercenaries", and it is true that there are also a certain number of athletes who aim to settle down and change their legal nationality. For professional sports centered on commercial interests, there is a general consensus on the league "mercenary" model and what is happening around the world. However, for the conceptual form of elite sports, the national and cultural connotations carried by the concept itself produce very different results. Elite sports refers to highly competitive rather than recreational sports activities, not all competitive-oriented athletes are elite athletes, the requirements for the level of competition are almost harsh, only a small number of sports practitioners can meet this standard, but this does not mean that all elite athletes are professional athletes, many amateur athletes in order to obtain economic income from sponsors or advertising, so fully engaged in the sports industry, and become a professional athlete.
From the perspective of nationality, we distinguish between the two conceptual forms of elite sports and professional sports. Elite sports events such as the Summer Olympics and the World Cup contain richer and more diverse elements of national identity, and even cultural representations that trigger tensions between nation-states. Professional sports events such as the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and the five major leagues in world football contain rich cultural economy and business innovation thinking, and there are differences and commonalities between the two. Elite sports events are more about selecting national citizens who represent the highest level of competition in the country, which has the difference between the legal nationality of athletes and sports nationality, and since athletes represent the country, there is a sense of belonging to the question of "who am I" and "where do I belong".
Or in a sense, athletes can only show the value of their own existence, enjoy universal social respect, and even realize their own life value if they are integrated into the national process and social and cultural narrative. In the breakthrough of zero gold medals in the New China Olympic Games in 1984, Xu Haifeng was praised as a national hero, and since then, elite athletes such as Chinese women's volleyball girls, Li Ning, Deng Yaping and other elite athletes have been branded with symbols of national heroes.
The cross-border movement of athletes faces a dilemma, and in terms of the impact on the political economy of the importing countries, the transnational movement of athletes has a positive effect on promoting the economic development of the league, and at the same time has an impact on the established cultural and political ecology of the country. The concept of cultural and political ecology is more macroscopic, and cases are cited here to further explain. The dissolution of ideological boundaries after the end of the Cold War, the entry of transnational capitalism into a stage of rapid global expansion, and the recruitment of a large number of foreign players in the English professional football market in the mid-1990s, the negative impact of which damaged the interests of local players in England, especially the restriction of the development opportunities of local young players, which in turn adversely affected the overall competitive level of the English national team, and more importantly, the immigrant culture formed an erosion force on the orthodox culture of England. British society and the media are deeply concerned about the cultural identity crisis implied by the increasing internationalisation of the Premier League, and some news reports often mention sensitive words such as "foreign legion" and "foreign invasion" to remind the large number of foreign players of the serious challenges to England's national identity.
In fact, as the English media judged, it is difficult for foreign players or naturalized players to abandon their original national identity or national identity and integrate into the socio-cultural traditions of the country of naturalization. Zidane's symbolic interaction with French football is a typical case, football symbolizes the "republican" idea of French multiculturalism and the democratic social spirit of "freedom, equality, fraternity", Zidane's soft-spoken, introverted, slightly clumsy media image has won a wide range of social influence, Zidane's "head-banging" performance in the 2006 World Cup final in Germany has aroused criticism, and his view of national identity has also caused widespread social controversy." Many Algerians of my generation immigrated to Europe but never gave up their culture. ”
This amply shows that the naturalized players' national identity based on certain cultural and religious differences has inhibited the effectiveness of the French national cultural assimilation policy and poses a serious challenge to the social integration policy of French multiculturalism. It is worth noting that the essence of naturalization is the process of social assimilation, which is a process of transcending an individual's racial identity, adapting to and accepting the culture of the country of naturalization, having greater homogeneity with groups or members of society in the country of naturalization, and showing homogenized social concepts and behavioral orientations. In fact, more naturalized players are leaving behind the social and cultural responsibilities of naturalization status in order to obtain naturalization status and share in the welfare and economic fruits of the naturalized country. In the process of naturalization, young players will consciously cover up their true psychological state and naturalization purposes in order to successfully obtain the status of naturalization and live the good life they dream of. If naturalized players do not exhibit the value orientation of social assimilation, then it cannot be said that naturalized players represent the country of naturalization in the national and cultural sense, which is a "mercenary" model with legal or sports nationality status. More and more athletes are switching their legal nationality for monetary gain, which seriously interferes with the normal order of international sports. To this end, various international sports organizations have introduced relevant policies to restrict the cross-border movement of players, such as the "6+5 Rule" issued by FIFA and the "Local Player Rule" issued by UEFA, which restricts the number of foreign players in international competitions or club registration players, which is essentially a copy of the trade protectionist policy under the quota system.
In summary, the above case alludes to the problem of honor outsourcing in the transnational movement of athletes. The outsourcing process involves the realization of national honors, especially in the case of naturalized players or athletes with sporting citizenship, representing the country of naturalization and winning more honors for the country of naturalization. That is, the unique "glory for the country" function of elite sports has been outsourced to non-local athletes, which has also caused widespread social controversy.
▍ Honor outsourcing and national sentiment issues in the transnational movement of athletes
(1) The outsourcing of honors makes the problem of national sentiment prominent
It is a highly specialized and fragmented world, where a natural person, an organization or even a country has limited energy and resource endowments, and outsourcing becomes a way to reallocate those resources and energies. Production and manufacturing can be outsourced, cultural products can be outsourced, human resources can be outsourced, "winning glory for the country" can also be outsourced, in the near future, can a country's spiritual beliefs also be outsourced? As with the selection of infant sex, to IVF and genetic intervention, or even possible future human cloning, human thoughts and actions have become bolder and more border-conscious. Looking back at the development process of new Chinese competitive sports, former Chinese outstanding athletes such as Hu Na, He Zhili, Li Mao, Huang Sui, Li Jiawei, feng Tianwei and so on have caused extensive social controversy, stirring up the emotions and nerves of the Chinese people again and again. When placed in the trend and background of sports globalization, China is obviously not a special case, and such cases abound.
For example, South Korea's main striker Park Joo-yong, who deserted military service, was ignited by fanatical nationalist sentiments, triggering strong discontent in the South Korean media and public. This incident of national sentiment, which had risen to the height of national self-determination and ideology, was later put to rest with the support of South Korea's Olympic team coach Hong Myung-fu and Park Zhouyong's sincere apology. In other words, the naturalization of athletes on a global scale will be the general trend, but it will inevitably be challenged by pure nationalism. The Park Joo-yong incident shows that the part of the transnational movement of athletes involving the outsourcing of honors, as well as the existence and intervention of national sentiment problems, are the main sources of social controversy and public opinion events.
What is confusing is that the transnational mobility of athletes belonging to the same type and nature triggers very different emotional reactions in different countries, nationalities, societies, and historical stages. That is to say, looking at the two dimensions of social concept (horizontal) and historical process (vertical), how to understand the honor outsourcing behavior in the transnational mobility of athletes depends on the degree of openness of social values and the development process of historical values.
(2) The reasons why honor outsourcing has caused problems of national sentiment
The phenomenon of occupational mobility such as science and art is used to understand the relationship between honor outsourcing and national sentiment. The social controversy caused by the emigration of elite talents from various social fields in China is no stronger than that of the professional group of athletes. Represented by famous scientists Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning, after receiving education and laying a knowledge base in China, the two immigrated to the United States to develop, and then obtained American citizenship, contributing to the scientific development of the United States. This contribution of citizens to the country not only has the effect of transforming the results brought about by science, some American companies have become direct beneficiaries, but also the honorary impact of global scientific competition, which has enhanced the international status of American science and the national identity of American citizens. The transnational movement of athletes, a special form of human resources outsourcing, is also in line with the basic characteristics of the dual social effects of migration and human resources outsourcing in the field of science. Naturalized players participate on behalf of the countries of their own sports citizenship, and the economic effect of sports events also comes from the contribution of naturalized players. At the same time, naturalized players represent countries in international competitions, and the international impact of sports events has won advantages for participating countries in cultural and political fields such as international reputation, image, honor, and national identity, and naturalized players will also become an integral part of this honor system and national soft power. The two situations and the social effects are very similar, why Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning are universally respected, while Hu Na and He Zhili are on the hat of history.
Singaporean scholar Jason Phan believes that the main problem lies in the pursuit of the state, and distinguishes between two types of "national pursuit", one refers to the pursuit of excellence in the social system, and the other refers to the pursuit of excellence of citizens. If a country has a remarkable social system, it uses that system to produce a steady stream of good citizens, which means that a country's social system provides its citizens with the infrastructure, technology, and finance to support their achievements in certain professional fields. If the blind pursuit of citizen excellence, similar to the rapid change of Spanish national team forward Costa-style "finished" player introduction model, the excellence of the social system does not play its due support effect, this direct purchase of human resources from overseas, with a clear utilitarian purpose, in order to obtain the "glory for the country" effect of the national behavior, will be the foundation of the existence of modern countries——— the sense of national identity poses a threat. Ding Zhaozhong, Li Zhengdao, Yang Zhenning and others have been trained by the US higher education system, and there is no shortage of physics giants in graduate tutors, and the US science and education system has played an important role in it, which will also become the conceptual basis for local citizens to identify immigrant groups to make achievements in "winning glory for the country".
(3) The balance of values between honor outsourcing and national sentiment
From the perspective of cross-border movement of athletes, in order to alleviate the increasingly utilitarian immigration of football players and maintain the purity of European national identity, UEFA has implemented the "local player rule" under the guidance of quota system. European countries have learned from the inspiration of trade protectionist policies, using quotas to resolve the negative impact of cross-border movement of athletes on European cultural identity, and the original intention of the "local player rule" policy is to enhance the influence of European countries' sports systems, thereby maintaining the cultural code of European excellence and strongness——— citizens' sense of national identity and pride. Placed in the soil of traditional concepts in Chinese society, the naturalization of immigrant athletes with non-ethnic roots and the participation of the state is an absolutely impermissible ethnic behavior. Imagine that it is all yellow-skinned Chinese men's football, naturalized black players to represent the country, what an embarrassing national event. Just like the existence and operation of a family, it is possible to outsource the cleaning of the house, the chores, and the daily affairs to professionals, but the obligation to have children is left to outsiders. China can allow the hiring of foreign coaches to help improve the competitive level of China's local athletes, thereby proving the legitimacy and superiority of China's social system and the "national system" of competitive sports, and maintaining the sense of identity and national cohesion of the Chinese people to the motherland.
Thus, the method of hiring foreign aid is a reflection of moral and social pathological concepts, athletes regard sports as a tool to achieve personal goals, the impact on the country's political and cultural ecology is mainly manifested as: the symbolic meaning of participating in the country, eclipsed in the face of money, mercenary athletes naturalization motives tarnish sacred citizenship, resulting in citizens losing their sense of identity with the motherland. Elite sports events with national sentiment as the atmosphere of the competition have lost the cultural and political soil on which they depend for survival, and the national competition has lost its spiritual sustenance and has become boring and unattended, resulting in a great reduction in the commercial value of sports events. At the same time, breaking the balance of the global order dominated by nationalist values and leaving nation-state beliefs with no place to live will trigger a new round of global social and cultural crisis. This moral pathology can be avoided by cultivating the right values of international sports competition, such as the demonstration of the traditional virtues of fair play, the fine traditions of teams and national representatives. That is, the motivation to represent a nation should be based on a genuine sense of cultural unity, love, and pride in the homeland.
The professional sports development form with commercial interests as the goal is only a form of human resources outsourcing or capacity outsourcing for sports events, which avoids the problem of honor outsourcing in a country, and then bypasses the national sentiment and even social controversy that may be triggered by honor outsourcing. In fact, in professional sports events such as the five major leagues of world football, the J-League of Japan, and the Chinese Super League, the introduction and performance of foreign players have not triggered a national emotional reaction, but because of the arrival of foreign star players, the professional sports league has been revitalized. The development form of elite sports with the goal of national honor is more to take the creation and production of the spiritual belief of national honor as the purpose of value, just as the matter of giving birth to a child must be done by oneself, and the sacred national national product of the state representative must be borne by the local players of pure national blood. Anderson's assertion of the "imaginary community" of the nation-state is to the point, and the origin and growth of the modern state is almost always reduced to a pious nation-state group in the sacred name of national unity.
▍ National border awareness in the transnational movement of athletes
(1) Integration of national border awareness
Nation-states in the era of information networking in the 21st century will obviously not determine the cognitive boundaries of postmodern states by geographical categories and the traditional distinguishing characteristics of national self-determination. What are the most core elements of the field of national culture and politics in the 21st century? It is the awareness of national boundaries, the emotional expression, value identification, ideals and expectations of the leaders, elite groups and all citizens of a country for the motherland to become the spiritual residence. The social controversies arising from the outsourcing of honors in the transnational movement of athletes have cleverly become an indicator and weather vane for confirming national boundaries, and have continuously confirmed, generated and adjusted national boundaries in a series of social controversies, so that citizens can maintain a relatively stable level of their national, national and cultural identity.
The resource endowment conditions and comparative advantages of each country are different, some countries lack manpower and need to introduce labor personnel, some countries lack intelligence and need to introduce scientific and technological talents, some countries lack financial resources and need to introduce investment groups, and some countries lack international honor and need to introduce athletes. In the period of efficient allocation of global resources, each country will establish a talent input and supply system that meets its own characteristics according to its own economic and social development needs. In the issue of the transnational movement of athletes, the integration and reproduction of national border awareness has increasingly highlighted its important cultural and political regulatory function. In the transnational movement of athletes, the behavior of honor outsourcing, which has been understood by the Chinese people, which has been spurned by the Chinese people, and even the same behavior has triggered different public opinion effects.
For example, the Singapore women's table tennis team, formed by immigrants from elite Chinese athletes, has risen rapidly in the international table tennis arena, triggering widespread international and domestic controversy. This state act of achieving skilled migration in the short term is clearly a "mercenary" act with utilitarian purposes, but the question is whether such "mercenary" behavior, rooted in Singapore's historical tradition and the sense of national borders, can be understood by citizens. Singapore is a country of immigrants with ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity, and racial harmony has always been the goal of the country's governance policies. With a population of only 4 million, Singapore, like immigrants creating the U.S. super-empire, is the driving force behind The Constant Importation of Foreign Talent is the driving force behind Singapore's sustainable economic and social development. Singapore's main players who won the silver medal in the Table Tennis Women's Team at the Beijing Olympic Games, Wang Yuegu, Feng Tianwei and Li Jiawei, are all Chinese immigrants and represented Singapore in the London Olympic Table Tennis Competition. The incident drew criticism from some scholars, who mainly argued that the outsourcing of honor in the transnational movement of athletes could not lose the bottom line of national identity. These criticisms do not take into account the mitigating role of a country's historical traditions and specific cultural and political environments in mitigating the conflict of social values in the process of influencing public opinion on immigration. The event did not exceed the growth history and moral bottom line of a country, Singapore from the British, Japanese occupation, towards self-government, Singapore and Malaysia merger period, to the founding of the country all the way to the present, the Chinese are the source of Singapore's ethnic culture, is an important force to witness and promote the country's economic and social development. Singapore has guided the construction of national identity in the new era from the height of national development in a timely manner, and has the value of a national development strategy from a lofty height.
This also brings us to the "gorgeous national statistics" that Singaporean scholar Jason Phan points out, such as the migration of many wealthy foreigners to raise the per capita income level of the national population, who then adapt to the culture of the country of emigration, but do not represent the country's efforts to eradicate poverty. Because it's a little better in terms of national statistics, but it doesn't really solve the problem of poverty. This discussion case alludes to some distortions in reality, such as the change of nationality of Chinese private entrepreneurs to the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in order to seek overseas listings, and the change in economic data has not changed the fact that private enterprise owners create wealth for China, which is indeed a bunch of "gorgeous national statistics" for the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. However, for the Singapore women's table tennis team, the gold and silver effect caused by the honor outsourcing is obviously not only reflected in statistics. Taking the Chinese table tennis player Tan Ruiwu immigrating to Croatia as an example, tan Ruiwu's arrival not only directly enhanced the overall strength of the Croatian table tennis team, but also made more local people pay attention to and support the development of table tennis, making due contributions to the global popularization and development of table tennis and alleviating the continuous decline in the influence of table tennis in Europe. Obviously, whether it is the influence of Chinese immigrant athletes on the development of table tennis in Singapore, Croatia, Canada, Australia and other countries, or the contribution of players of immigrant or immigrant descendants such as Fontaine, Platini, Zidane, Thuram, Henry, Desailly, Vieira and other immigrants to French football, it is not just an extreme case of "gorgeous national statistics", but also contains richer social and cultural content.
(2) The opening and dissolution of national border awareness
Today, the transnational flow of global technical talents has been generally recognized by all countries in the world, the global talent competition is fiercely underway, and it has become the right of natural persons to freely choose to migrate abroad for better development with their own skills. The problem of cross-border movement of athletes is no exception, and the flow trend is unstoppable. Among the 32 teams of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, only Brazil, South Korea, Uruguay, Nigeria, Honduras and a few other national teams without immigrant naturalized or re-nationalized players are few and far between, and other participating teams have more or less or even a large number of immigrant naturalized, re-nationalized or immigrant descendants players. Most of the teams have skillfully resolved the social controversy brought about by the outsourcing of honors in the transnational movement of athletes, and in the process of grasping and handling the core element of social controversy, that is, the cooling and dissipation of national sentiment, it is very similar to the social public opinion environment faced by the Singapore women's table tennis team, and the two factors of national historical tradition and social openness have played an important buffer role.
(The proportion of immigrants in the football World Cup teams in Western European countries is very high, the picture shows the 2018 World Cup champion France team, of which immigrants account for 78.3%, picture from the New York Times)
First, the developed countries of Europe have rebuilt the relatively stable network of cross-border exchanges and relations in the post-colonial period by virtue of the historical, political and cultural heritage of their colonies. For example, the 14 naturalized players of the Algerian team at the Fifa World Cup in Brazil are all from France, which is jokingly called the "French second team". Correspondingly, France is also the best choice for the immigration and naturalization of Algeria's elite players, and Zidane is representative. This historical legacy, which is left over from and passed down from colonial history and accumulated in terms of language, customs, culture, emotions, values, etc., solves the problem of the national and national legitimacy of Algerians in France, or the work and life of French people in Algeria, and even the outsourcing of honors. Admittedly, extreme cases beyond the emotional reach of a nation-state also need to be taken into account, as exemplified by the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Algerian "National Anthem Gate". In the face of the naked "golden dollar football", the players can not speak the language of the representative country, or even sing the national anthem, whether for personal career development, financial interest temptation, national honor outsourcing and other reasons, this is the border awareness of the modern national existence, specifically the most dangerous subversion of the sense of national identity and national cohesion. Dual citizenship, an immigration policy that defines national borders, further condones the outsourcing of honors with a clear utilitarian purpose.
Second, the cultural boundaries of developed countries such as the United States, England, and Germany are highly open, which is also conducive to alleviating the impact of immigrants on the established political, social and cultural ecology of the countries of migration. The immigrants or descendants of immigrants who have contributed to the team at the Fifa World Cup in Brazil, such as Ozil to Germany, Jones to the United States, Orikiye to Belgium, and Costa to Spain, these players are more flexibly integrated into the social and cultural life of the country of migration, winning the attention and recognition of the people of the new host country. It is true that the analysis of the problem cannot be absolutized, and the economies of the developed countries themselves do not fully represent a high degree of openness of national, ethnic and cultural borders. The most typical example is the "localization" of professional clubs triggered by the problem of intra-European ethnic identity, the Spanish FC Barcelona represents the indigenous identity of the historical, ethnic and cultural complexity of catalonia, and Athletic Bilbao Football Club is the symbol of the Basque Region, just as the club's historical tradition of "hiring only Basque philosophy" embodies the cultural meaning, dedicated to the symbolic architecture of regional values, regional ethnic identity and regional nationalism. Establish a social field of national united fronts.
In short, the integration of national border awareness has brought about richer changes in the cross-border movement of athletes. In the past, nationalism has always been stigmatized as an obstacle to the progress and development of society, but now it is more urgent to dialectically look at the positive role of nationalism, national sentiment, and national border awareness. With the large number of immigrant and naturalized players moving into European countries in the past 20 years, the professional football leagues of major European countries have become more and more cosmopolitan, and have raised the problem of protracted and will continue to be a racial and cultural conflict. In the past 10 years, FIFA and UEFA have launched a package of anti-football racism and fan education campaigns, and the commercial motivations of this move are clear, and international sports organizations are looking to maintain the market vitality of international sports events. At the same time, opposing nationalist behavior in sports events, opposing national sentiment problems that go beyond the dimension of human emotion expression, and opposing over-stressed national border awareness must be just right and appropriate. It is precisely because of these highly radicalized national factors and nationalist tendencies that international brand events such as the Summer Olympic Games and the World Cup have become so attractive, full of market vitality and value-added potential. Or that the main function of national sentiment or sense of national borders is to overcome the crisis of national spiritual beliefs, which is increasingly swallowed up by monetary interests.
▍ Conclusion
Between honor outsourcing and national sentiment, the issue of national borders for the transnational movement of athletes will present a richer perspective from which perspective to approach, with which value orientation, or in what social and cultural context. For the nation-state process rooted in this global megatrend and context, it is particularly important to look for marginalized views and values that are outside the media and society, and to take a dialectical view of the transnational mobility of athletes. Perhaps the outsourcing of human resources and honors in the process of athletes' transnational mobility is not "good" and "bad", "right" and "wrong", but only depends on the role that the initiative of national border awareness can play. Or more specifically, how a country, a people, an institution, a group, a person understands the context and trends of such a global change. Or more broadly, how the age of immigration defines a country's borders.
This article was originally published in the Journal of Chengdu University of Physical Education, No. 11, 2014, and transferred from the "Eurasian Systems Science Research Society", with limited space and some editing and deletion. Welcome to share personally, media reprint please contact the copyright owner.