Negotiating sporting identity in divided discursive spaces: nationalism and localism in the Guangdong–Hong Kong Cup

The Guangdong–Hong Kong Cup is a long-standing football tournament between teams from the two Cantonese-speaking cultural regions of southeastern China. Using the 2024 edition as a case study, this research analyzes media and social media discourses surrounding the event to examine the interplay of sports, nationalism, and localism in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The findings show that mainland media emphasized national unity and nationalism in reporting on the 2024 tournament, while Hong Kong media presented more divergent coverage, reflecting both pro-mainland and localist perspectives. Hong Kong fans frequently expressed localism and subtle resistance in social media posts about the 2024 tournament, in contrast to mainland users’ focus on national cohesion and solidarity. These results illustrate how an enduring sporting event can serve as a microcosm of broader sociopolitical contexts and reveal how identity is constructed and negotiated through sport.