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Chinese Women and Sport: Success, Sexuality and Suspicion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

James Riordan  and
Dong Jinxia
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Extract

The performance of top Chinese women athletes in the 1990s has been unprecedented in the history of sport. Not only have they made remarkable progress from virtual obscurity to world champions and record breakers, they have far surpassed the performance of their male compatriots in international sport. This unique phenomenon extends from middle and long–distance running to swimming and diving, from weightlifting and chess to volleyball and basketball, from shooting and archery to wrestling and rowing, from badminton and gymnastics to softball and soccer – and table tennis dating back to the early 1970s.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 145 , March 1996 , pp. 130 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1996

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References

1 Craig Lord, “China's women shake the world,” The Sunday Times,11 September 1994, sport section, p. 10; The Times,13 September 1994, p. 42.

2 For German sources on doping, see especially Brigitte Berendonk, Doping–Dokumente: Von der Forschung zum Betrug(Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1991). See also Alois Mader, “Verwissenschaftlichung des Sports in der DDR – sportsmedizinische Erkenntnisse und ihre Anwendung,” unpublished manuscript, Cologne 1977; A. Mader and W. Hollman, “Sportmedizin in der DDR,” Sportwissenschaft,No. 2 (June 1983), pp. 152–162; Peter Kuhnst, Des missbrauchte Sport. Die politische Instrumentalisierung des Sports in der SBZ undDDR, 1945–1957(Cologne: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1982); Renate Heinrich– Vogel, “Mein Lebensweg vom sportbegeisterten Kind zur Hochleistungssportlerin der DDR,” in Dieter Ehrich, Renate Heinrich–Vogel and Gerhart Winkler (eds.). Die DDR Breiten– und Spitzensport(Munich: Kopernikus Verlag, 1981). For Soviet and Russian sources, see my articles “Rewriting Soviet sports history,” Journal of Sports History,Vol. 20, No. 3 (Winter 1993), pp. 247–259; “Russia and Eastern Europe in the future of the Olympic movement,” in R.K. Barney and K.V. Meier (eds.), Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology(London: University of Western Ontario, 1994), pp. 1–10.

3 Jiang Yun, “China: a developing country, a developing role in international sports,” unpublished paper, Nanjing, 1992, p. 7.

4 Ibid.p. 9.

5 Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport in modern China,” Sports Science,No. 1 (1995), p. 11.

6 Wu Shaozhu, Sports Science,No. 4 (1990), p. 2. Quoted in Jiang Yun, China: A Developing Country,p. 17.

7 Xu Qi, “Sport awakening in China,” Olympic Review,September–October 1990, p. 46

8 After the Communist victory of 1949, Taiwan was the recognized Olympic representative of China: it was the Nationalists who were already IOC members when they fled to Taiwan; and China would not compromise. In 1979, the dilemma was resolved by IOC acceptance of (mainland) China as the People's Republic of China, reducing Taiwan to “Chinese Taipei.”

9 See Xu Qi, “Sport awakening,” p. 465.

10 Robin Jones, “Sport in China: a current view,” in Ann De Lacey (ed.), International Sports Systems: Past, Present and Future(Liverpool: Institute of Higher Education, 1993), p. 28.

11 George H. Sage, Power and Ideology in American Sport: A Critical Perspective(Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Books, 1990), p. 81.

12 See Jiang Yun, China: A Developing Country,pp. 8–9. My italics.

13 Li Hongbing, “Sports make our life more delightful,” China Sports,July 1994, p. 7.

14 Quoted in Song He, “He means what he says,” China Sports,May 1994, p. 11.

15 Xu Qi, “Sport Awakening,” p. 467.

16 See Jiang Yun, China: A Developing Country,p. 10; and Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport,” p. 15.

17 See Jones, “Sport in China,” p. 29.

18 Ibid.19. James Riordan, “Russia and Eastern Europe in the future of the Olympic movement,” in Barney and Meier, Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology,pp. 6–7 for sources on Soviet and East German sports boarding schools. See Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport,” p.

19 for sources on Chinese schools.

20 See Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport,” p. 32

21 Ibid.

22 Thomas Lewis, “World beaters,” Britain–China,No. 2 (1994), p. 19.

23 See Iain Macleod, “Life of extreme hardship lies behind China's revolution in athletics,” Telegraph Sport,18 October 1993, p. 43.

24 See Xie Yanmin, “Causes for feminine domination,” China Sports,October 1994, p.

25 See Jennifer Hargreaves, Sporting Females(London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 233–34

26 See James Riordan, “The social emancipation of women through sport,” The British Journal of Sports History,May 1985, p. 59.

27 See Susan Brownell, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People's Republic(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 52.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.p. 225.

30 Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport,” p. 13.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.p. 16.

33 Ibid.p. 13; see also Shirin Rai, “Gender, employment and educational reforms,” in Shirin Rai, Hilary Pilkington and Annie Phizacklea (eds.), Women in the Face of Change.(London: Routledge, 1992), p. 31.

34 Rai, “Gender employment and educational reforms,” p. 27.

35 See Women of China,No. 4 (1995), p. 29.

36 Xie Yanmin, “Causes for feminine domination,” p. 22.

37 Brownell, Training the Body,p. 229.

38 David Powell, “Divisions reported in athletics army,” The Times,5 January 1995, p.

39 Deng Xuezheng, “Ma Junren: a thorny path to success,” China Sports,October 1994, p. 12.

40 Yang Wanhua, “In a class by herself,” China Sports,May 1994, pp. 18–19.

41 See China Sports,July 1994, p. 14, and November 1994, p. 14.

42 See Pierre Georges, “Tais–toi et nage!" Le Monde,16 September 1994, p. 32.

43 Dong Jinxia, “Society, women and sport,” pp. 19–20.

44 Brownell, Training the Body,p. 230.

45 Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of ChinaLondon: Harper Collins, 1991

46 David Powell, “Family regime at an end,” The Times,6 January 1995, p. 36.

47 Rai, “Gender, employment and educational reforms,” p. 21.

48 Brownell, Training the Body,p. 55.

49 Ibid.p. 237.

50 Rai, “Gender, employment and educational reforms,” p. 23. See also Liu Qian, “Respect and protection,” Women of China,No. 5 (1955), p. 23: the author reports that in 1993, “women deputies accounted for 21.6% of all deputies to provincial people's congresses."

51 Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter, Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 1.

52 Xie Yanmin, “Causes for feminine domination,” p. 23.

53 Ibid.

54 Xie Kainan, “Basketball: a look at China's strength,” China Sports,August–September 1994, p. 43.

55 Huang Zhiwen, “Will China make it again?" China Sports,August–September 1994, p. 39.

56 See Xie Yanmin, “Causes for feminine domination,” p. 23.

57 See “National Anti–Doping Conference" and “Chinese athletes pass tests,” ChinaSports,July 1994, p. 53.

58 Strict anti–doping measures,” China Sports,June 1994.

59 "China drugs shock,” Hongkong Standard,29 November 1994, p. 2

60 See The Sunday Times,1 January 1995, sport section, p. 17.

61 Ibid.

62 See Elliot Almond and Rone Tempest, “The crooked shadow,” Los Angeles Times,8 February 1995, p. 28.

63 See Matthew Loh, “Chinese top brass meet over scandal,” Hong Kong Eastern Express,30 November 1994, p. 41.

64 Paul Tait, “FINA 'sting' nailed dopes,” Hong Kong Eastern Express,30 November 1994, p. 1.

65 It is significant that in a national poll by sports fans to select the top ten athletes of 1993, the top seven places went to women, and women look eight of the ten positions (see 'Top ten for 1993,” China Sports,June 1994, p. 52. Women took six of the top ten positions in 1994: see China Sports,February 1995, pp. 6–7).