Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities and the Game of Weiqi in China
Marc L. Moskowitz
Abstract
Go Nation examines the board game Weiqi (known in the West as “Go”) in several spheres. The author outlines the different cultural metaphors of the game throughout history, as well as its contemporary significance in nation building, national rivalry, and ping-pong politics in the East Asian political economy. He also examines the ways that the game is infused with Confucian imagery that helps shape boys into men, based on age-old ideals of an intellectual masculinity that is associated with greater morality. He traces modern manifestations of this discourse in relation to modernity and new se ... More
Go Nation examines the board game Weiqi (known in the West as “Go”) in several spheres. The author outlines the different cultural metaphors of the game throughout history, as well as its contemporary significance in nation building, national rivalry, and ping-pong politics in the East Asian political economy. He also examines the ways that the game is infused with Confucian imagery that helps shape boys into men, based on age-old ideals of an intellectual masculinity that is associated with greater morality. He traces modern manifestations of this discourse in relation to modernity and new sensibilities. The book draws on fieldwork among different age groups: a children’s school, a university club, and a park where senior citizens play Weiqi. In using this game as a framework to tie these disparate groups together, one sees a cross-section of contemporary China that includes young and old, rich and poor, the educated and blue-collar laborers.
Keywords:
anthropology,
China,
gender,
masculinity,
modernization,
popular culture
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520276314 |
Published to California Scholarship Online: September 2014 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520276314.001.0001 |