Biography

Professor Fan Hong is the Director of Irish Institute of Chinese Studies at University College Cork Ireland.

She obtained her BA and MA at universities in China and her PhD at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.  She was Professor in Chinese Cultural Studies at De Montfort University in England before she moved to UCC in June 2006.

She is editor of The International Journal of the History of Sport  and a member of various editorial boards including the Sports Studies Journal and the International Encyclopaedia of Women and Sport.  She is the former Chair of the Research Sub-Committee of the Ethics and Education Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) founded by the International Olympic Committee.  She was a senior administrator at the Chinese Sports Ministry and editor of the Journal of Sports Culture and History published by the Sports Ministry in Beijing in the 1980s.

Her main research interests are in the areas of culture, politics, gender and sport.  Her books in English include Footbinding, Feminism and Freedom: The Liberation of Women’s Bodies in Modern China (1997), Freeing the Female Body: Inspirational Icons (2002), Sport in Asian Society: Past and Present (2003), Women, Soccer, Sexual Liberation: Kicking off A New Era (2003), Modern Sport: the Global Obsession: Politics, Class, Religion, Gender (2005), Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games (2006), Doping in Sport: Global Ethical Issue (2007, Routledge) with Angela Schneider, China Gold: China’s Quest for Global Power and Olympic Glory (2008, Berkshire Publishing Group) with Duncan Mackey and Karen Christensen.