Sports have come to be acknowledged as global cultural property. As a particular variant of physical culture, sports emerged and changed in response with the shifting constellations of political, economic, and social forces within the modern capitalist world. Global movements (of people, goods, finance, media, and ideas; Appadurai 1990) have provided the backbone for spreading and sustaining the dominance of Western sports. Situated at the crossroads of place-making, nation-building and global body culture, sports spectacles have been employed as a showcase of national virtues and achievements for global consumption. However, under the influence of global movements, these ambitious goals are increasingly difficult to achieve. Sports spectacles have come to serve multiple interests, and Eurocentric notions of Self and Other, as well as the retro-design of the Olympic movement, are points of contention that curtail the representational power of the nation on display. Keywords: East Asia, globalization, Olympic Games, representation, spectacle, sports