It is entirely possible of course that 20th century Communist governments were so touchy about athletic clubs becoming large enough to become a vehicle for anti-government organizing *because* they had studied history and knew about the two (I think) times this happened in Imperial China in the 1800s
@mcc oh they also knew their own history. the polish version of pre-ww1 sokół was definitely a form of organising of patriotic polish (young) people at the time there was no polish state.
If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://circumstances.run/users/mawhrin/statuses/116183396295603310 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)