‘Special’girl:A Research On Gender Identity Of Amateur Female Weiqi Players In Their Youths

Weiqi was listed as one of the four arts of Qin,weiqi,calligraphy and painting in ancient China.It is a competitive game.Since ancient times,women have been in a marginal position in the field of weiqi,and there is a significant gap in the number of participants and competitive level between female and male.Weiqi is not only artistic,but also competitive.The research on woman in the field of weiqi belongs to the gender research category of sports sociology.Women are always regarded as marginal groups in the field of sports,while sports plays an important role in shaping gender temperament and gender identity.Women’s participation in sports has the characteristics of gender crossing the border,so it is regarded as an important place for women’s empowerment and liberation.In addition to being a kind of sports,weiqi is also highly similar to science,technology,engineering,mathematics(stem)and other fields: in these fields,women are underrepresented and lack attention,and their contribution and ability are often weakened.In the field of weiqi,there is a significant gap between female players and male players in both quantity and level.They belong to a special group.The culture of weiqi has strict supervision and review on female players.In the field of weiqi,the excessive focus on the appearance of female players and the general definition of fierce weiqi style of female players all show that they are in a marginal position in weiqi.Researcher chose the group of amateur female weiqi players to obtain the experience of female weiqi players in the field of weiqi through the method of semi-structured interview.Butler’s theory of performativity gives a understanding of mobility of gender identity.Gender is no longer regarded as a category of binary division.Butler’s theory gives gender a new meaning from the perspective of cultural construction of mobility and performance.The experience in daily life and specific gender culture make the respondents form a unique way of gender identity,which affects their actions in a new situation-weiqi.Female weiqi players show a complex way of gender identity in their daily life,which is different from the version of Western women.It is a unique way of gender identity in the Chinese context.The stigma of "tomboy" identity in the Chinese context has caused their obstacles of gender identity.Gender identity is rooted in action,so it is necessary to understand from the actions of female weiqi players how female chess players perform under the cultural constraints in the field of weiqi in this new situation.Outside the chessboard,the respondents learned the gender culture in the field of weiqi.In getting along with male players and the deliberate publicity of the media,female players are more willing to show the characteristics of "paying attention to appearance and dressing",while under the influence of parents,male players,teachers,media and competition system,they accept the characteristics of "female vulnerability" in the competitive field.Therefore,it can be considered that the field of weiqi has shaped the idealized femininity of "female vulnerability" and "high beauty",which shows that their performance is limited by the mainstream norms;On the chessboard,they are famous for their fierce weiqi style,which is precisely the side forced to hide in real life.Therefore,the chessboard gives women the space to change from the restricted subject in reality to the free subject and show their complete personality.Individual agency performs alternative actions has the potential to reshape the structure,and their actions give ‘women’s’ weiqi a new meaning,making‘women’s’ go change from ‘passive and fragile’ to ‘fierce and aggressive’.However,‘women’s go’ is immediately given a new stigma,which is regarded as ‘irrational and brainless’.