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Description
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially recognized esports as a sport in 2017 during the 6th Olympic Summit. Furthermore, for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, eSports was declared as an official medal sport. The IOC also confirmed that its inaugural Olympic Esports Week will take place in Singapore between in June 2023. 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.
