Sporting Gender
Women Athletes and Celebrity-Making during China’s National Crisis, 1931-45
The first book to explain how and why female athletes in China were elevated to celebrity status during the early twentieth century.
Description
Sporting Gender is the first book to explore the rise to fame of female athletes in China in the early twentieth century. Gao shows how these women coped with the conflicting demands of nationalist causes, unwanted male attention, and modern fame, arguing that the athletic female form helped to create a new ideal of modern womanhood in China. This book brings vividly to life the histories of these women and demonstrates how intertwined they were with the aims of the state and the needs of society.