Chinese Women Hold Up Half The Sky?

CCCH9032 Sports and Chinese Society (Spring 2014) – Second Essay
CHAN Chun Ho (UID: 3035071486)

Name:

CHAN Chun Ho

UID:

3035071486

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[e-mail]

Tutorial group: Friday 14.30

Mao Zedong once famously declared: women can hold up half of the Sky. In China’s competitive sports arena, do Chinese women hold more than half of the sky?
Introduction
The late Chairman Mao Zedong famously coined that “women hold up half the sky”, recognising the importance of female to the development of the Chinese society and emancipating women in all aspects of life. In the context of elite sports, this saying is far from just a mere slogan, but rather reflects the actualities in China.1 Indeed, with the stellar performances of Chinese sportswomen in the competitive sports arena, they have been outperforming their male counterparts and contribute much to the national glory – they do hold up more than half of the sky today.
With reference to statistics, this essay first discusses “how” the Chinese sportswomen hold up more than half of the sky with their outstanding competitive performances. Leveraged on relevant literature, the reasons behind the Chinese sportswomen’s domination are summarised. The relative importance of these factors are then be critically examined.
How the Chinese sportswomen “hold up more than half of the sky”
Chinese women have progressively surpassed the performance of Chinese men in international sports. The “sexual imbalance” 2 in Chinese world performance can be illustrated by comparing the number of female athletes in and their performances at worldwide level against the male side.

1
2

Jinxia Dong, Women, sport, and society in modern China: holding up more than half the sky. (London:
F. Cass, 2003), 1.
James Riordan and Dong

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