| （School of Physical Education，Zhengzhou University，Zhengzhou 450044，China) Abstract: Based on Benedict Anderson’s “imagination community” as the interpretation foundation, the author put forward the following opinions: the forging of a national country needs not only developed industries, publishing and communication industries, and a unified market, but also war as an embodiment catalyst; while in the era of peace, such a brutal external force as war is lost, as the best metaphor for war, football becomes the cultural entity of continuing to solidify the national community awareness; based on its number one sport’s communicating power, summoning power and pertinence characteristics, football provides a war like entry scenario, inspires the partici-pants’ passion, and converges the mass’s community awareness, while the reaching of such an imagination consen-sus, becomes the intrinsic force for solidifying such a trinity identity as “individual identity – collective identity – national identity”.
Key words: football；national community awareness；identity recognition；imagination community；embodiment |
