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Chinese Bodies that Matter: The Search for Masculinity and Femininity

2013; Routledge; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2012.754428

1743-9035

Gladys Pak Lei Chong,

Gender, Feminism, and Media

Abstract This article is an inquiry of why such significance has been assigned to sports in general and the Olympics in particular in China. It looks at how history and politics intersect with gender. I explain how the historicity of China's traumatic past – how it fell prey to the western imperialists – has allowed the state to draw on the biopolitical discourse that links its subjects' physical, mental and moral attributes to that of the survival and revival of a Chinese nation. This article examines the ways in which gender ideals/norms were inscribed onto the athletes' bodies that helped exemplify China's nation-building project and its pursuit of modernity. My analysis focuses on the representation of their bodies, clothes and corporal expression. Three sets of male and female athletes of three different periods were examined: (1) Liu Changchun and Yang Xiuqiong, representing the Republican China; (2) Li Ning and Lang Ping, representing the post-opening up period; (3) Liu Xiang and Guo Jingjing, representing the global China. I argue that manliness and femaleness are cultural as well as political products produced according to the needs of the nation and the state at different historical moments; and both men and women carry their share of national burden. Keywords: the sick man of Asiagender ideals/normsbodiesathletesnation-buildingmodernity Acknowledgements I would like to thank the editor(s) and anonymous reviewer(s) for their insightful comments and suggestions, as well as Jeroen de Kloet, Rebecca Chan, Yiufai Chow, and Stefan R. Landsberger for their support and encouragement. My gratitude also goes to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for funding my PhD research. Notes 1. This was taken from my interviews with Olympic volunteers whose serving point was at the Bird's Nest. 2. Olympics Approaching, shown on April 19, 2008. 3. See, for example, CitationDai, "Behind Global Spectacle;" CitationDong, "Women;" CitationBrownell, Training the Body; CitationMangan, "A Personal Perspective;" CitationClose, Askew, and Xin, The Beijing Olympiad. 4. CitationBrownell, Training the Body, "The Body and the Beautiful in Chinese Nationalism," "Making Dream Bodies in Beijing" and Beijing's Games. 5. This constructivist approach has been applied to western male athletes. Some examples are CitationBonde, "Gymnastics;" CitationStaurowsky, "Getting beyond imagery;" CitationJensen, Body by Weimar; and CitationGaucher, "Black Males in the Stadium." 6. CitationLouie and Edwards, "Chinese Masculinity;" CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities; CitationLouie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity; Citationde Kloet "Gendering China Studies," 286; CitationTeng, "Construction of 'Traditional Chinese Woman';" CitationHershatter, "State of Field." 7. CitationTeng, "Construction of 'Traditional Chinese Woman'," 144. 8. See, for example, CitationJankowiak, Sex, Death and Hierarchy; CitationLouie and Edwards, "Chinese Masculinity;" CitationZhang, "Tiananmen Square;" CitationLouie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity; CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities; CitationGeng, Fragile Scholar; CitationBerry and Farquhar, "How Should Chinese Men Act;" CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games. In the diasporic contexts, some examples are CitationFung, "Looking for My Penis;" CitationChow, "Smaller is Better." 9. CitationWang's "Capitalizing Big Man" is one of the very few. Wang argues that Yao Ming's popularity is a cultural political event connected to China's desire to become "big," the global capital and the expectations of Asian American. 10. Li Xiaojiang, Charlotte Furth, and Tani Barlow in CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 25 and 32. 11. Li Xiaojiang, Charlotte Furth, and Tani Barlow in CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 28. 12. Li Xiaojiang, Charlotte Furth, and Tani Barlow in CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities 13. See, CitationDuara, "Regime of Authenticity;" CitationHong, Footbinding, Feminism and Freedom; CitationKo, Cinderella's Sisters; CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games; CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities. 14. CitationLouie and Edwards, "Chinese Masculinity." 15. CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 29. 16. In "Chinese Masculinity," Louie and Edwards argue that Chinese masculinity is different from the West. They propose to understand Chinese manhood from Chinese historical backgrounds. They put forward the wen-wu dyad to understand Chinese masculinity. CitationLouie, in Theorising Chinese masculinity, points out that while wen-wu are in harmony, wen has always been more respected in elitist discourse of Chinese manliness. 17. CitationPerry and Dillon write that the image of bandits, an opposite to the official ideals of masculinity, was used as symbols to redefine masculinity during the revolutionary movements, in "'Little Brother' in the Cultural Revolution," 196. 18. Mencius' famous words "Those who work with their brains rule; those who work with their brawn are ruled" vividly capture this deep-seated belief. With the emphasis on memorisation of the Classics, the civil service examinations (the method of selecting government officials from the population) practised since the Song dynasty discouraged all physical activities in the society in CitationGuoqi, "Body Beautiful." 19. CitationCaffrey, "Prologue: Beijing 2008," 1010. 20. The elites at that time were mainly Han people and their nationalistic sentiments were largely Han-centric, excluding the ethnic minorities living in China. See, CitationDuara, "Nationalists Among Transnationals." 21. In CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 31. 22. CitationBrownell, "Making Dream Bodies in Beijing," 125. 23. CitationHonig, "Maoist Mappings of Gender." 24. CitationHonig, "Maoist Mappings of Gender", 266. 25. CitationHonig, "Maoist Mappings of Gender" 26. CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 332. 27. CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 332 28. CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 332, 33. 29. CitationJankowiak, "Proper Men and Proper Women," 363. 30. CitationJankowiak, "Proper Men and Proper Women," 363 31. CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games, 120 32. The premiere began with a minute of silence for the dead and injured of the Sichuan Earthquakes on May 12, 2008; and it ended with a long session of discussions with many senior official figures. 33. The production was largely financed by the Beijing Forbidden City Film Company, and partially by CCTV6 (the film channel of China Central Television) and a Hong Kong company. In our interview, the director told me that the funding provided by the Beijing Forbidden City Film Company was from the Beijing government. 34. Both Lifeweek and China Newsweek are weekly magazines. I read them regularly during my fieldwork in 2008 and paid special attention in the period around the Olympics. 35. Some examples of readings in these magazines include "Li Ning: Beyond Our Century-Old Dreams;" "Guo Jingjing." 36. CitationLouie, "Theorising Chinese masculinity." 37. CitationSong, The Fragile Scholar. 38. CitationSaid, Orientalism. 39. CitationChow, Writing Diaspora, 7. 40. CitationSigley, "Liberal Despotism." 41. See, for example, CitationClose, Askew, and Xin, The Beijing Olympiad; CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games. 42. Episode 1 "I Can Compete" of Olympiad. 43. Some say that the first ethnic Chinese who participated in the Games was Chiu Teng Hiok, who represented Britain in the 1924 Paris Games. See CitationMarquand, "An Olympic Hero." 44. Episode 1 of Olympiad. 45. Zhang Xueliang, known as the Little Marshal, was the son of Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in Dongbei. The Xi'an incident (1936) – in which he kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to unite with the Communists to fight the Japanese invaders – turned him into a hero in Mainland China. 46. CitationDyer, White. 47. CitationDyer, White, 148. 48. CitationDe Kloet, "Gendering China Studies." 49. See, CitationDyer, White, 155. Yet, in recent years, the trend has experienced slight changes: too much tanning is a signifier of the working class. 50. CitationFoucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 51. The Young Companion was said to be the most influential magazine that promoted progressive thinking in early twentieth-century China. Many influential intellectuals such as Lu Xun and Yu Dafu had written for the magazine. 52. Song Meiling was the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang, therefore also known as the First Lady of the Republic of China (ROC). He Xiangning was a female revolutionist who fought alongside Dr Sun Yatsen and a famous painter in the early twentieth century. Hu Die was a famous actress during the ROC. She was known to refuse to act in a Japanese propaganda movie. Ding Ling was a well-known woman author and social activist supporting Communism. These women were well-known of their times, yet, to me, Yang was the least heard of. If it was not for this documentary, I would not have known her and her contribution to Chinese sports history. This shows how the past is selectively called into the present to furnish a collective memory for the Chinese viewers. This was taken from Olympiad. 53. According to Hershatter (Citation2007), the modern new woman envisioned by the revolutionaries in the May Fourth Movement "would be educated, employed, independent, concerned with public life, and attentive to the plight of women more oppressed than she" in Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, 86. 54. The four virtues are mentioned in the proper conduct of women in traditional Chinese culture – The Three Obedience(s) Four Virtues. 55. CitationDuara, "Regime of Authenticity," 299. 56. CitationDuara, "Regime of Authenticity", 296. 57. Yang was often shown socialising with other celebrities or famous people in Shanghai in the 1930s. 58. CitationClose, Askew, and Xin, The Beijing Olympiad. 59. The Chinese female volleyball team was highly popular in the early 1980s. CitationBrownell writes that "the greatest standouts were the national women's volleyball team members, who became national heroes and a focal point for the revival of Chinese patriotism when they won the world championship in 1981," in "Challenged America," 1183. 63. CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games, 110. 60. CitationBrownell and Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 331. 61. CitationZhang, "Mediating Time," 98. 62. CitationHershatter, Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, 95. 64. CitationBrownell, Beijing's Games, 110 65. CitationHershatter, Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, 95. 66. CitationHershatter, Women in China's Long Twentieth Century, 97. 67. Episode 4, Olympiad. 68. CitationJankowiak, "Proper Men and Proper Women," 363. 69. CitationKam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity. 70. CitationTeng, "The Construction of the "Traditional Chinese Woman," 122. 71. CitationWilson, Finding a Voice, 39. 72. Examples are: "Pinglun: nimen shuo Lang Ping "panguo," woxiaole" [Comments: You Said Lang Ping Committed "Treason," I Laughed 2008. The 2008 Olympic Report], available online at http://2008.163.com/08/0817/16/4JIGSEC600742QDT.html (accessed August 31, 2008); "Cong Lang Ping xianxiang kan jingying panguo de kepaxing," [The Lang Ping Phenomenon Reveals the Horrifying Side of Elites' Treachery Acts], available online at Sina Blog, http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_54e8f0c60100bcje.html (accessed August 10, 2011). 73. Olympics Approaching. 74. CitationChow, "Smaller is Better." 75. Live Report of the 110-M Hurdle Competition, Liu Xiang Withdrew. 76. Live Report of the 110-M Hurdle Competition, Liu Xiang Withdrew 77. CitationLouie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity. 78. These were taken from my interviews with Olympic volunteers during the 2008 Games. 79. "Fangchan guanggao eyi yingshe Liu Xiang shangtui, wangyou: kaifashang tai quede" [Property developer mocked Liu Xiang's withdrawal. Netizens: Commercial companies lack decency], available online at http://finance.people.com.cn/stock/n/2012/0809/c67815-18705573.html (accessed October 30, 2012). 80. "Liu Xiang genjian duanlie shangye jiazhi mengdie jiangbei Lin Dan qudai" [LiuXiang's Achilles Rupture, Commerical values plunged and replaced by Lin Dan], available online at http://finance.21cn.com/newsdoc/zx/2012/08/08/12609933_3.shtml (accessed October 30, 2012). 81. "Nanke yiyuan guanggao Liu Xiang buxing zhongqiang gouqi Liu Xiang aoyun diedao huiyi" [Male Clinic Advertisement, Liu Xiang was used, Bring back bad Olympic memories], available online at http://sports.kankanews.com/mingxing/2012-09-27/1552058.shtml (accessed October 30, 2012). 82. CitationEvans, "Sexed Bodies." 83. CitationRofel, Other Modernities, rephrased by CitationHershatter, Women in China's, 46. 84. CitationEvans, "Sexed Bodies," 373. 85. Executive, "Guo Jingjing." 86. Henry Fok Ying-tung, the head of the Fok family, was seen as the most powerful Hong Konger who had political connections with the PRC. The Fok family is not only politically influential, but also very wealthy. Kenneth Fok is the grandson of Henry Fok. Guo and Fok were married in November, 2012. 87. CitationEvans, "Past, Perfect or Imperfect." 88. Executive, "Guo Jingjing." 89. "Guo Jingjing," 61. 90. "Guo Jingjing," 61 91. "Guo Jingjing," 61 92. Chow in CitationHershatter, Women in China's, 116. 93. CitationChong, China Rejuvenated?