Global: Faster, Higher, Stronger: What the Olympics means to China's Women

By Sreemati Chakrabarti

Since the 1990s, the performance of China's women athletes has been termed as unprecedented by many sports writers. From virtual obscurity to becoming world champions and record-breakers at many international events, Chinese women have generally outperformed their male counterparts.

At the Seventh World Swimming Championships held in Rome in September 1994, Chinese women won 12 of the 16 swimming and diving world titles, bagged five silver medals, and set five world records. By contrast, the men came back with nothing. Sports writers and other experts have often wondered about this rather unusual phenomenon. 'The London Times' (dated September 11, 1994) commented on the achievement in an article titled: 'China's Women Shake the World'.

Having studied China for more than 30 years now, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the Chinese Revolution that brought the Communist Party to power in 1949 has led to a remarkable improvement in the lives of women. Especially when compared to that of the women in the developed and not-so-developed countries.

Within weeks of its inception in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party set up its 'Women Department' which guided the party's work pertaining to women labourers and, later, peasant women. During the entire liberation movement, women joined the party in large numbers and actively participated in campaigns, making numerous sacrifices.

Since 1949, an unprecedented progress in the economic and social position of women has been witnessed. Independent feminist researchers from the West have shown how in the arenas of literacy, healthcare and employment, Chinese women have a better record than that of any developing nation. Even a casual visitor to China notices the number of women working in shops, employed as bus and cab drivers and engaged in night shifts. For me, an Indian woman who has lived largely in Delhi, all this was simply amazing!

But, on probing a bit, one discovers that all progressive ideas pertaining to women exist only in the cities. Rural China, where nearly 70 per cent of the people live, is entirely different when it comes to gender relations. Moreover, if we look at the number of women in decision-making the figures are abysmally small. The 25-member Politburo of the Communist Party has just two women on it. The all-powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo has none. As of now, there are no women provincial governors - although a few have become vice-governors.

Coming back to women's achievements in international sport. Since the 1980s, China's sports policy has worked towards producing a winning formula at the Olympics and other world arenas - a vision reminiscent of the zeal of socialist nations of the 1960s, such as erstwhile Soviet Union and East Germany. Massive financial investments have been made in the past two decades to boost sports. According to one estimate, China spends almost US$ 50 million per gold medal, as opposed to the investment of a wealthy nation such as South Korea that spends only US$ 10 million. Many hope that during the current Olympics, China would top the medals tally and become the sporting power of the world. China's former swimming coach, Ma Junren, did publicly say that the outstanding achievements by the women athletes in the 1980s prompted sports authorities to channel more resources to women's events, resulting in their greater participation and higher technical standards.

State encouragement is, however, only one reason behind the female achievements. Even though Shadow Boxing and Kung-fu have been very popular in China since ancient times, traditional Chinese society has looked down upon sport - associating it with the lower classes and women. From the 10th century to the advent of the West, education for the elite increasingly emphasised the use of mind at the expense of the body (China has had a long history of isolation from the outside world. The Europeans forcibly entered China 1840 onwards). Wealthy young men spent years learning the classics to be able to get through the Imperial Examinations and join the gentry. Sport and physical exercise were viewed as activities engaged in only by "lower class, uneducated people". This, despite the fact that the martial arts novels, other literary texts and operas down the centuries always had a female as an important character, in the form of the warrior, or 'wudan' to be
precise. More than a thousand years ago a form of football had become a popular sport among women. Wrestling, engaged in by both men and women (many of who went on to become celebrities of their times), was a popular court entertainment.

Despite the heavy state sponsorship, the age-old denigration of sport exists in the psyche of the Chinese even today, exemplified by the large participation of poor, rural women from less educated backgrounds in sports. Rural women - many of whom have, over time, become rich stars - see sport as an avenue to material and social advancement.

While the age-old, patriarchal, rural class-divide results in women gaining approval simply because the discipline is not considered worthy enough for the educated and men, what furthers female excellence is their predisposition to a hard physical regimen, a consequence of their peasant backgrounds. Rural and working women are already trained to undertake activities that need great physical and mental strength, pre-requisites of an effective fitness regimen.

In a country where the official ideology - communism - glorifies manual labour, the idea of strong, tough, muscular women receives official approval and is, in fact, propagated as an ideal stereotype, reinforcing the traditional stereotype. It is thus no surprise that an overwhelming majority of women athletes come from rural or urban working-class families. In the opinion of trainers and coaches, sportspersons are more obedient, disciplined and diligent than are sportsmen. According to one source, "Many girls in remote and poverty-stricken villages have become world famous athletes... although freed from the fetters of feudal custom... Chinese women, particularly in rural areas, have inherited the virtue of obedience to their elders, and to their coach in sports training. They can bear all the hardships involved in training and obey their coaches."

Unofficial, but reliable, sources do tell a story of the intense training, bordering on the inhuman, that women undertake. Ma Junren, coach of the outstanding long distance runner Wang Junxia, has been accused by some of being "cruel and inhuman". He was intolerant of the slightest deviation from a strict regime, which entailed no boyfriends, no make-up and only close-cropped hair. Reports say that during Wang's training, he hid from one his charges the news of her brother's death - she was informed about it only after the championship. Other coaches have made women trainees practise for up to 14 hours a day, 364 days a year with no leisure, no vacation, no time with family and no television. In some sports - like diving and gymnastics - girls as young as six are subjected to a strict regime for years together.

It may sound ironic, but attitudes, which were prevalent in feudal China, are responsible for the amazing success of Chinese women in the sporting arena today.

(The writer is a professor of Chinese Studies, University of Delhi.)

(Note: References taken from the writings of Dong Jinxia and James Riordan.)

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)