Globalization and China^s eSports Policy
Tien-Chin TAN, Jiaren CHEN, Ting-Ying KUAN

Graduate Institute of Sport, Leisure and Hospitality Management
National Taiwan Normal University

Abstract

It was announced in 2017 that e-sports (referred to as e-sports) had been officially recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (the International Olympic Committee for short), and there was discussion of whether e-sports could be included in the official competition events of the future Olympic Games. A major player in e-sports consumption, China^s actual e-sports sales revenues reached 83.44 billion yuan in 2018, surpassing Western Europe for the first time in 2019. China has now become the largest e-sports market in the world. Historically, globalization discussions have focused on traditional Olympic competitions, and research into the booming e-sports industry seems to be in its infancy. Consequently, the focus of this study is primarily globalization and Chinese e-sports policy, as well as its analysis from a national perspective. A majority of the discussion topics are centered on government agencies, for-profit companies, and non-profit organizations related to e-sports. Research methods used in this study included content analysis and semi-structured interviews. The purpose of this study is to examine the development of Chinese e-sports by applying the theoretical framework of globalization as a lens through which to examine the three responses of participation, passivity, and conflict in e-sports. As well as providing academic and theoretical contributions to the field of e-sports, the findings of this study will provide Asian governments with a reference to help them formulate relevant policies and strategies to cope with the challenges and opportunities presented by globalization of e-sports.

Keywords: China, eSports, globalization, industry, government

Topic: Sports policy and development