Timeline
After 1949, Song served as a professor of physical education at Beijing Normal University.
In 1950, he coached the Chinese university men’s basketball team at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague.
In 1952, the physical education department of Beijing Normal University merged into the Central Institute of Physical Education, which later became Beijing Sport University. Song later served there as director of academic affairs and vice president.
In 1956, he became a member of the Chinese Basketball Association and chaired its referee committee.
In 1957, he became one of the first national-level basketball referees in the PRC.
In 1959, he served as the chief basketball referee at the first National Games and taught basketball rules at a national referee training course.
In 1964, he was elected to the fourth committee of the All-China Sports Federation and served as a member of the fourth CPPCC National Committee.
In 1977, Song died at the age of eighty in Beijing.
In 2021, the gymnasium named after Song Chin Foh was completed at Shandong University, Qingdao Campus.
In 2023, Shandong University held the first Song Chin Foh Cup Swimming Competition.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Song Chin Foh continued to work within China’s changing sports education system. He taught physical education at Beijing Normal University and later worked at the Central Institute of Physical Education, the predecessor of Beijing Sport University. His later career extended beyond teaching into basketball coaching, referee training, sports administration, and the writing of physical education manuals.
This later stage of Song’s career shows that his importance did not end with the Republican era or with China’s early Olympic delegations. His work moved into the institutional structure of New China’s sports education system. He taught at Beijing Normal University after 1949. In 1952, when the physical education department of Beijing Normal University was merged into the Central Institute of Physical Education, the predecessor of Beijing Sport University, Song later served there as director of academic affairs and vice president.
Song also continued to coach at the national level. In August 1950, China sent a national university men’s basketball team to the sports competition of the Second World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Song served as coach, and the Chinese team placed fourth among six teams. This episode is useful for the exhibit because it links Song’s pre-1949 Olympic experience to the PRC’s early efforts to return to international sports competition.
His later contributions were especially important to basketball officiating and rules education. In 1956, Song was elected to the Chinese Basketball Association and served as chair of the first and second referee committees. During his tenure, China established a more complete system for referee ranking and administration. In January 1957, Song became one of the first national-level basketball referees in the PRC. In 1959, he served as chief referee for basketball at the first National Games of the People’s Republic of China and lectured on basketball rules at a national referee training class.
Song’s written work also shows the breadth of his influence. Several of his publications include Principles of Physical Education, Liu Changchun’s Sprinting, Women’s Basketball Training Methods, Women’s Softball Training Methods, and Film Posture Diagrams of Famous Track and Field Athletes at the Tenth World Games. Song’s Women’s Basketball Training Methods, published in 1932, was China’s first book on women’s basketball.
