The Development Of Women’s Sports In Modern China And A Genealogy Of Discourse

Sports has long been perceived as a masculine domain.By contrast,women’s sports in the context of modern Western culture rose under the background of the Industrial Revolution,involving women’s struggle for equal rights with men.However,the modernization process of Chinese women’s sports is much more complicated,which was regarded as one of essential methods to nation building by scholars in the late Qing period.In addition,as an emerging part of women’s education in modern times,Chinese women’s sports was not just about the growth of sports,but also related to women’s development as well as a general structure of China’s modernization process.By analyzing the history of women’s sports in modern China,one can have a profound understanding on the complexities of modernization process in China.Based on the foregoing,this paper aims to explore the development of Chinese women’s sports in modern day from two aspects: to analyze and present a comprehensive picture about the growth of women’s sports in modern China,such as it’s the emergence of women’s sports in modern China,the widespread of it from school to society,and the diverse development of it;to discuss the details and features of a wide verity of views from modern China on appealing women to patriciate in sports.From the 1970 s to the early 20 th century,the Great Qing was forced to step into the system of political,economic and social globalization under the massive impact from Western world.During the last three decades of the Qing period,it did carry out a series of revolutions that linked to self-improvement.Among these revolutions,people desired for the innovation of the upper political system,society,culture,daily life,customs,etc.And meanwhile,all those revolutions have stimulated the rise of the modern sportswomen to some extent.In the middle 19 th century,there appeared recreational activities in terms of women’s education in some churches from Shanghai.To be specific,these activities was made up of various postures,singing and rest,which became part of teaching management and close to “Physical Education”.After the First Sino-Japanese War,“Xingnvxue(the development of women’s education)” became an essential component of considerable strategies on nation building,which means Chinese women officially participated in the modern "sports" events.Furthermore,in 1907,“Qingxuebu(the Department of Education in Qing Dynasty)” issued two regulations:Qingding nvzi xiaoxuetang zhangcheng(Regulations on Women’s Primary School);Qingding nvzi shifan zhangcheng(Regulations on Women’s Normal School).These two regulations both require that "gymnastics" is a compulsory course,and also illuminate a couple of rules as well as principles about it.From this,women’s sports eventually turned into a section of the national system.After the establishment of the Republic of China,women’s sports experienced a rapid growth,which can be observed from four respects.Firstly,the sustainable development of women’s school sports.For example,there was an increasing number of female schools took part in the Athlete Meeting.Besides,these sports events were not only about the traditional performance of “gymnastics”,but covered many modern sports events.Secondly,a number of social organizations that focus on the growth of women’s sports start emerged.Thirdly,women begun to participate in both international and domestic sports events.Finally,there emerged sociable sports in terms of women.To sum up,during the Republic of China,the content and the framework of women’s sports in the context of modern western culture have set up.When it comes to the general tendency,the time difference between women’s sports in modern China,especially in coastal developed areas,and world’s women’s sports was not that large.Actually,women’s sports in modern China successfully kept pace with the world’s and even moved hand by hand.In modern day,women’s sports in Western world associated with equal rights between women and men.And the development of it owed to women’s own efforts.In contrast,the process of modern sportswomen’s rise in China was mainly dominated by men.Since the late Qing Dynasty,the Western powers rudely entered the territory by force through the Opium War.A large proportion of men of vision renewed and updated their ways of thinking,in order to pursue the goal as creating a stronger and healthier nation and repelling the invaders.Therefore,the value of women has drawn great attention from many aspects of society,which include uplifting and cultivating female bodies.From the end of the 19 th century,terms connected with women’s values,missions,roles and identities have appeared constantly,such as "Xianqi niangmu(Great Mother and Good Wife)","Guomin zhi mu(Mother of the Nation)","Nv guomin(Female Citizen)","Nv xuesheng(Female Students)",and “Xin nvxing(New Women)”.Thus,women’s sports have got a huge promotion during this period,and have been considered as an indispensable factor for women’s new roles,and also a critical symbol for women’s new identity.What’s more,according to people who hold positive attitudes towards women’s sports,there existed three different motivations:the first motivation came from Western missionaries.Specifically,the early group of missionaries enlightened the development of Chinese women’s sports to a large degree,although their original proposes were to fulfill their personal targets.These foreign missionaries introduced Western women’s lifestyles and Western sports,and also criticized the negative part of Chinese female customs.For instance,they criticized the phenomenon of "Guojiao(bound feet)",but encouraged the "Tianzu(unbound feet)" movement.In addition,the Western missionaries founded a number of women’s schools,introducing "Kecheng(Courses)" into curriculum system.All of above have posted a direct impact on the emergence of women’ sports in modern China.Moreover,the foreign missionaries’ opinions about the benefits and values of women’s sports had far-reaching influences on some scholars in the late Qing period.The second motivation came from male intellectuals.In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,some open-minded elites played a vital role in promoting the growth of women’s sports in modern China.After the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War,the current tools and the reform of regulations failed to satisfy the goal of building a strong and prosperous nation,therefore some male elites realized the importance of finding an alternative way to achieve the goals.With the "introduction" and "inspiration" from Western missionaries,and the massive influence of western civilization as well,the term of "women" that was ignored for a very long time,now drawn great attention to those elected officials.No doubt about that the rise of “woman”was essential to nation building.The improvement of women was particularly significant in the construction of nation,which eventually triggered the rise of "women’s sports" to a large extent.As it related to women’s physical improvement,"women’s sports" was regarded as a critical method to nation building.The third motivation came from female intellectuals as well as female students.To be specific,during the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,the main participants of women’s sports were comprised of “women”,especially female students and teachers in female schools.And the group of female intellectuals which was represented by "Nv jiaoshi(Female Teachers)" and "Nv baoren(Female Journalist)" were extremely open-minded.Since these female intellectuals concerned about the destiny of nation,they voluntarily took part in the pursuit of building a strong nation which was first established by male elites.For instance,the female intellectuals appealed and even used their personal experiences to inspire other women to participate in sports activities.Besides,among speakers of women’s sports in modern China,there were several female students in primary schools who hold valuable ideas.These 12 to 17 – year – old students’ views showed their aspiration and objectives on women’s sports.In general,numerous views with various targets existed regarding women’s sports.On the face of it,these different point of views gradually formed a mature perspective on women’s sports in modern China.Furthermore,there existed some obvious features among those opinions,such as “Jiaguo qinghuai(Patriotism)”that play a curial role in views on women’s sports.Based on this circumstance,women’s sports in the context of modern western culture eventually became "legitimate" and "legal" in modern China,and thus motivated the development of women’s sports.On the othe hand,however,"sports" is all about physical activities,and if it carries overwhelming responsibilities and missions,unexpected problems may appear.For example,there was a trend of politicization in consumption in the Republic of China,which were associate with women’s sports.Looking for women’s own voices and emotions in history is one of trends among the study of women’s history since the 1970 s and 1980 s.The paper aims to find out the voices of women in the development of women’s sports in modern China.However,researches have shown that descriptions about the histories of women was not encouraged,when confronted with the turmoil and uncertainty of national crisis.Thus,several valuable point of views may once have existed,but never been recorded and drawn any attention.