From integration with China to engagement with the world : international mega-sports events in post-handover Macau

Within a few years after its retrocession to China, Macau successively completed the celebrations of an East Asian Games, a Lusophone Games and an Asian Indoor Games. This article intends to understand the reason why the city chose to become a zealous host of sporting mega-events. Through scrutinizing journalist reports, official almanacs and academic works, the findings revealed that the East Asian Games enabled Macau to accept the norms of China and follow its trend, whereas the Lusophone Games and the Asian Indoor Games facilitated the city to respectively enhance its influence in the international Portuguese-speaking community and realize its goal of joining the International Olympic Committee. The zealousness thus was confirmed as a strategy with the aim of promoting both post-handover Macau’s integration with China and its engagement with the world.