Bicycle Culture in Korea and China: From Transportation to Sport Jin Hyunju* , Zhuliang
ZheJiang Normal University, China
Abstract
The Bicycle culture is shifting from transportation to sport in Korea and China. In the case of Korea, the 3,120 km long national bicycle road network constructed under Lee Myung Bak^s presidency served as the impetus for the population of cycling riders to rise. In Korea, purchases of adult bicycles during the first week of March 2021 totalled 6.2 billion won, approximately nearly 7% of the overall purchase of 92.3 billion won in sporting goods.
Bicycles have long occupied the status of a primary mode of transportation in China, but bicycles as a mode of transportation are gradually vanishing as a result of the proliferation of electric motorcycles. However, bicycle sales in China have skyrocketed since June 2020, the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, as a result of increased demand for sports bicycles: road cycles. As of 2022, orders for road cycles from well-known international companies have been delayed until 2023, making it challenging to acquire even one bicycle on the market.
The growth of the bicycle market in Korea and China is based on an increase in road cycle users who enjoy bicycles as a sport. Cycling has historically been primarily studied in terms of urban planning and transit, but through the lens of health promotion discourse, it is now expanding into leisure activities and sports. For instance, road cycling is commonly regarded as the ^new golf^ in the UK and has developed into a new culture for the middle class (falcous, 2017). Although the processes of transformation in Korea and China are different, there are commonalities in the cultures around cycling as serious leisure. By examining the current condition of bicycle culture in Korea and China, this study investigates the cultural meanings of road cycling in both nations.
