Same Old China: A Critical Analysis of China’s Elite Sports
System’s Use of Young Females to Position Itself onto the
Global Economic Stage of the 2008 Olympics
Women, Law and the Global Economy
Course Number: Law 900
Professor Arriola
Fall Semester 2008
cschuster@niu.edu
(815)531-9625
Exam Number: 544257
In completion of the graduation writing requirement, Northern Illinois University
College of Law
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China was the least westernized nation in the world to host the Olympic Games in 2008
and the Beijing Games marked only the third time in Olympic Summer Games history that it was
held outside the West.1 Commentators noted that it would “be the greatest-ever meeting of East
and West in peacetime.”2 This historic time afforded China with a global stage to promote their
policies on international politics, the domestic economy, gender relations, and sport.3 Since
China has historically been perceived as a cruel patriarchal society towards their women, the
2008 Olympics offered an unique chance for China to present itself to the world under its own
terms. China chose “One World, One Dream” as the official theme of the Beijing Games in an
effort to further the ideal that “in spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share
the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for
peace.”4 The chosen themes attempted to present a new image of China as a nation that cares
about its people and the status of the world as a whole.5 Hosting the 2008 Olympic Games also
symbolized China’s current global economic stature and provided an immense amount of
business opportunities to the country.6 In order to present itself as a modern country and secure
the 2008 bid, China appointed seven Chinese celebrities, six of whom were women, as official
endorsers to influence International Olympic Committee voters.7 The choosing of women for
securing the bid is just one example of how China uses their elite sportswomen to position the
country on the global economic and sporting stage. This paper asserts that after looking at the
See Susan Brownell, Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China 1 (2008).
Id.
3
Dong Jinxia, Women, Nationalism, and the Beijing Olympics: Preparing for Glory, in Modern Sport: The Global
Obsession: Politics, Religion, Class, Gender Essays in Honour of J.A. Mangun 30-1 (2007).
4
China also endorsed three other themes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The first theme of renwen Apyun translated
as the “humanistic Olympics.” The second and third themes are the “high-tech Olympics” and the “green
Olympics.” See Brownell, supra note 1, at 5, 16.
5
See Id. at 5.
6
See Jinxia, supra note 3, at 30-7 and Fan Hong, Beijing Ambitions: An Analysis of the Chinese Elite Sports System
and its Olympic Strategy for the 2008 Olympic Games, in Modern Sport Global Obsession: Politics, Religion, Class,
Gender Essays in Honour of J.A. Mangun 10-10 (2007).
7
See Jinxia, supra note 3, at 30-7.
1
2
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governmental structure of the elite sports system and its enforcement against young
women in particular, China continues to control women through militaristic methods of
recruiting, training, and disposing of young athletes once they are no longer commodities that
China can utilize.
Part I of this paper provides a historical framework of the treatment and success of
Chinese women in sport, the creation of the elite sports system, and the government’s current use
of the elite sports system to attain global economic involvement. Part II is focused on the current
structure of China’s elite sports system under the Sports Law of 1995 and the implementation of
the “Olympic Strategy” through governmental resources and training methods. Part III offers an
explanation for the disproportionate rate of successful female athletes in the elite sports system
by highlighting China’s recruiting methods and achievement based incentives. Finally, part IV
addresses the consequences of the elite sports system and the sacrifices that female athletes must
endure throughout their athletic career.
I.
Historical Context of Women and Sport in China
A. Historical Treatment of Chinese Women in Sport Prior to the Elite Sports
System
Chinese women have traditionally been accepted in muscular and combat sport due to the
historical intellectual bias against sports in China.8 “As early as 123 A.D. through the mid-Qing,
women of the imperial courts played the popular games of the time, including versions of polo,
soccer, kick-ball, field hockey.”9 During the Song Dynasty (960-1279AD) a form of football
“became more popular than ever for women, even with bound feet, spreading from court
“Sports are essentially perceived as an activity engaged in by lower-class, uneducated people, in contrast to the
valorization of sports for men among the Anglo-Saxon upper classes.” Susan Brownell, Training the Body for
China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People's Republic 43 (1995).
9
See Id.
8
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attendants to the general populace.”10 Women were also present in muscular combat sports like
boxing and wushu (various forms of hand-to-hand combat and skills contests) and even became
famous for their participation in the popular court entertainment of wrestling.11
Despite the traditional presence of women in sport, it was not until the late 1920’s that
Chinese women actually participated in significant numbers.12
Aside from the custom of
footbinding, the low participation rate of Chinese women in sport has been attributed to the
traditional Western bias against women in sport at the turn of the century. 13 When China
organized its National Games in 1924 China added three exhibition sports for women, and
officially included four women sports to the program in 1930.14 Following the 1930 National
Games, Chinese women were given the opportunity to participate in the Second Martial Arts
Festival of 1932 and in the Seventh National Games in 1948. 15
Once the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, the Communist
government promised a New China that embraced gender equality by freeing women’s bodies
and minds through ending the practices of footbinding and the Confucian doctrine. 16 Women’s
bodies also became a major focus of the People’s Republic new sports culture by encouraging
more women to participate in physical exercise.17 In October of 1950, Xin Tiyu (New Sport)
10
The concept and figure of the female warrior (wudan) has existed down the centuries and is a stock character in
marital arts novels (wuxia xiaoshuo) and other literary texts, and operas (wuxi). See James Riordan and Dong Jinxia,
Chinese Women and Sport: Success, Sexuality and Suspicion, The China Quarterly, Mar. 1996, at 130, 141.
11
See Id.
12
See Brownell, supra note 9, at 43.
13
China was initially introduced to Western sports such as volleyball and swimming through Western-run schools
and the YMCA which fostered a Western bias against women in sport. Westerners ran China’s National Games in
1910 and 1914 and women were forbidden from participation. See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 142.
14
The four sports added to the program were track and field, volleyball, basketball, and tennis. See Brownell, supra
note 9, at 225.
15
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 142.
16
The Confucian doctrine provided an avenue for men to exercise power and control over women because it
required obedience to father before marriage, to husband during marriage, and to son after the death of the husband.
See Fan Hong, Women and Sport in the PRC, in Sport and Women: Social Issues in International Perspective 2242(Ilse Hartmann-Tews & Gertrud Pfister, ed., 2003).
17
See Id.
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published an editorial entitled ‘On the Development of Women’s Sport’ that explained the
importance of women’s health and participation in sport to China as a whole.18 It stated:
Women of the New China not only require immense patriotic enthusiasm, scientific
knowledge, and work skill, but also healthy bodies. Only when they have healthy bodies
will women be able to participate in economic, cultural and military work and be able to
produce and nurture a new and healthy generation.
(Editorial 1950: 10)
B. Historical Development of the Elite Sport System in China (1949-1980)
China’s elite sports system began in the 1950’s and has transformed itself several times
depending on the political ideology of the time.19 The origin and development of the elite sports
system is vital to understanding the role and exploitation of young women in sports and the
government’s historical use of sport in advancing the political and economic interests of China.
1. Creation of the Elite Sports System (1952-1957)
After the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, the Chinese Sports
Federation was created as a non-governmental sports organization dedicated to the promotion of
sport in China.20 The Party Central Committee’s issuance of a directive entitled ‘strengthening
work in physical culture and sport for the people’ exemplified how the government of China
started to promote sports development.21 It was not until after China’s experience at the Helsinki
Olympic Games in 1952 that the Chinese government decided to utilize sports as a means to
restoring the nation’s position in international politics.22 In November of 1952, the Chinese
government formally established the State Physical Education and Sport Commission
18
See Id.
Fan Hong, China, in, Comparative Elite Sport Development: Systems, Structures, and Public Policy 26-2 (Barrie
Houlihan & Mick Green, eds., 2008).
20
Fan Hong, Innocence Lost: Child Athletes in China, in Sport, Civil Liberties and Human Rights 46-1 (David
Mcardle & Richard Giulianotti eds., 2004).
21
E.g. Dennis Whitby, Elite Sport, in, Sport, Physical Education in China 120- (James Riordan & Robin E. Jones,
eds., 1999).
22
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-2.
19
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(hereinafter Sports Ministry) to promote and control sport.23 The Sports Ministry had the same
status of other ministries like Education, Finance and Commerce who were all under the direct
leadership of the Central Government in China.24
The model of the Chinese Sports
Administration was organized in a vast hierarchy with power flowing down from the top.25 The
Sports Ministry was “in charge of the formulization and implementation of sports policy in all its
forms and the administrations of the national sports programme.”26
The Sports Ministry created the elite sports system with the issuance of the “Competitive
Sports System of the PRC” and the “Regulations of the Youth Spare-Time Sports Schools.”27
Under the Competitive Sports System initiative: “43 sports were officially recognized as elite
sports; rules and regulations were defined; professional teams were set up at provisional and
national levels and they would compete with each other at regional and national championships;
the National Games would take place every four years to promote elite sport and to unite the
nation through this event.”28 The “Regulations of the Youth Spare Time sports school” utilized
and adapted the Soviet Union’s spare time sports school model to train and foster talented
athletes from a very young age.29 During this era, elite athletes lived a militarized life in a semisealed sporting community, and enjoyed enviable welfare benefits.30
2. Sports Great Leap Forward (1957-1961)
China’s elite sports system developed further during the period of the Great Leap
Forward (GLP). GLP was an economic initiative with the objective of overtaking Great Britain’s
23
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-1.
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-2.
25
E.g. Dong Jinxia, Women, Sport and Society in Modern China: Holding Up More than Half the Sky 23 (J.A.
Mangun ed., 2003).
26
See Id.
27
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-2.
28
Id.
29
Id.
30
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 24.
24
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economy in seven years and the United States’ economy in fifteen years.31 In response to the
GLP, the Sports Ministry set a goal for China of catching up with the world’s best competitive
sports countries in ten years.32 In particular, the Sports Ministry projected that China’s athletes
would excel and become the leading nation in ten specific sports and produce over 15,000
professional full-time athletes by 1967.33 One way China attempted to achieve this goal was to
put the Soviet sports model in full force by September 1958 with over 16,000 sports schools and
770,000 young athletes.34 During this era, China was also promoting mass sport to all of its
citizens by requiring citizens to pass a fitness grade test.35
3. Elite Sport Focus (1960-1966)
The GLP did not result in economic prosperity or domination in sport as China had
hoped. On the contrary, the Great Famine brought economic disaster and the death of over two
million Chinese people.36 The Communist Party responded by changing China’s slogan to
“Readjustment, consolidation, filling out and raising standards.”37 The Sports Ministry did not
completely abandon their sports policy but decided to use “its limited resources to give focused
training in focused sports towards effective international competition.”38
As a result,
professional sports teams increased from three in 1951 to more than 50 in 1961.39 The Sports
Ministry also issued the ‘Regulations of Outstanding Athletes and Teams’ in 1963 with an idea
The slogan of the Great Leap Forward was ‘Go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better and more
economic results.’ See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-2.
32
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
33
The ten sports chosen were volleyball, basketball, football, table-tennis, athletics, gymnastics, weight-lifting,
swimming, shooting and skating. See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-2.
34
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
35
The mass sport concept was once again adapted from the Soviet model, “Preparation for labour and defense.”
China expected that sport would develop under the ‘two legs walking system’: elite and mass sports developing
simultaneously. See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-3.
36
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
37
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-3.
38
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
39
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-3.
31
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of improving their system by reducing the official elite sports from 43 to just ten.40 Ultimately,
during this period the “Sports Ministry changed their sport ideology and system from ‘two legs’
to ‘one leg’- the elite one.”41
4. Cultural Revolution (1966-1979)
During the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong launched a campaign to restore
China back to a red state (communist). “The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to re-establish
the ideological purity of communism threatened by the revisionists and capitalists over the
previous eighteen years and to recreate unpolluted ‘Mao Zedong Thought,’”42 Chairman Mao
considered China to have been controlled by capitalism and revisionism (black) since the
establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.43 The major elements that Mao
believed were dominated by capitalism and revisionist thought were politics, education, culture,
literature, media, drama, films, and especially sport.44 The Revolution began in the Sports
Ministry in Beijing and then infiltrated every provincial and local sports commission. The Sport
Ministry’s ideology was criticized because sport was promoted not for the health of the country
but for obtaining medals at competitions.45
During the beginning years of the Cultural Revolution, the training system broke down,
sports schools were closed and sport competitions as a whole vanished.46
Former Sports
Ministers, coaches, and athletes were jailed and forced into labor due to their “bourgeois” beliefs
40
The ten sports chosen were athletics, gymnastics, swimming, football, basketball, table tennis, badminton,
shooting, weight lifting and skiing. The search for young athletes was also expanded to include every province. See
Hong, supra note 20, at 26-3.
41
See Id.
42
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-4.
43
Hong, supra note 20, at 26-3.
44
Chairman Mao believed that sport in particular was a place where “for 18 years the black line had dominated.” Id.
at 30.
45
The priority that was given to elite sport was considered bourgeois ideology. See Id.
46
See Id.
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regarding elite sport.47 He Long, the Sports Minister, is an example of what the Cultural
Revolution initially did to sport in China. He was formally accused 48, criticized, jailed, and died
while in jail for his alleged support of elite sport over mass sport in China.49 The revolutionary
raid on sport in China extended to former coaches and players as well. They were often
criticized, beaten or sent to the countryside and factories to do physical labor.50 For example,
table tennis coach Fu Qifang and the first Chinese world champion Rong Goutuan were accused
of spying and forced to commit suicide because they had once lived in Hong Kong. 51 “In
volleyball circles alone, about 300 people were assaulted, imprisoned and sentenced to reeducation through hard labor.”52
This cruel attitude and treatment of sport in China changed in 1971 due to the urgent need
to establish better foreign relations with the United States and other Western enemies. The
slogan of sport in China became “Friendship First, Competition Second.”53 The “Ping Pong
Diplomacy” is the best example of how the new slogan and sport was used as an extremely
valuable resource for China.54 In February 1971, China invited table-tennis teams from the
United States and five other western countries to visit China and Premier Zhou Enlai warmly
welcomed the American athletes by saying “you have opened a new chapter in the relations of
47
See Id.
“For the past 10 years he has paid attention not to mass physical education but for forming professional teams and
highly developed activities.” Id.
49
See Id.
50
See Id.
51
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 76.
52
See Id.
53
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
54
See Id.
48
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the American and Chinese people.”55 The United States government recognized the political
symbol and responded to it very well.56
After the success of the Ping Pong Diplomacy, sport in China was seen as an extremely
important resource for creating relationships with countries of different political ideologies. The
Sports Ministry was restored and the cadres of the Sports Ministry were liberated from the
countryside in 1972.57 By the end of 1974, the elite training system was restored, a work
conference was held to promote elite sport, and 1,439 sports schools were re-opened.58 China
not only attended 54 international competitions between 1971 and 1976 but also began hosting
dozens of competitions.59 Even though elite sport was initially condemned by Chairman Mao
during the Cultural Revolution, he soon came to realize that “elite sport enabled the Communists
to make approaches to Western enemies through a medium benefitting from its nonpolitical
image.”60
5. Post- Mao and the Olympic Strategy (1978-2000)
Beginning in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s China initiated profound economic
reformation and made great efforts to integrate with the world economy under Deng Xiaoping.61
The ambitions of China were to “catch up with the Western capitalist world through controlled
emulation” and modernization.62 China renewed its membership of the International Olympic
Committee in 1979 because elite sport was seen as an avenue to reintroduce itself on the
international stage.
The Sports Minister, Wang Meng, even stated at the National Sports
55
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-5.
Throughout the next 18 months, China and the United States initiated peace talks, China renewed its seat in the
United Nations, and President Nixon and Chairman Mao entered into the “joint communiqué.” Id.
57
See Id.
58
See Id at 26-6.
59
See Id.
60
See Id.
61
See Id.
62
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-7.
56
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Conference that “forging a relationship between sport and the socialist economy was crucial to
the development of Chinese elite sport.”63 After success in numerous international competitions,
the Society of Strategic Research for the Development of Physical Education and Sport issued
the “Olympic Strategy” for the Sports Ministry in 1985.64 Under the strategy, elite sport became
the nation’s priority and “aimed to use the nation’s limited sports resources to develop elite sport
to ensure that China would become a leading sports power by the end of the twentieth century.”65
Sports officials did not attempt to hide the fact that “the highest goal of Chinese sport is success
in the Olympic games” or that “the all-important Olympic Games is the real yardstick for the
nations actual strength in sport.”66 The Olympic Strategy remains the priority in China and Part
II will discuss the administrative structure, financial resources, and training methods that were
implemented under this strategy.
C. Historical Success of Young Women in Elite Sport
1. Development and Early Success of Young Female Athletes (1949-1977)
As discussed earlier, the creation of the People’s Republic of China allowed women to be
treated equally with men in the law, family, education, and sport.67 At the time elite sport was
introduced to China, there were no discrepancies in the number of sports available to men and
women. Since then, young women have “taken up organized elite sport on a large scale and
made crucial contribution to China’s advances in world sport.”68 It took only eight years of the
elite sports system for China to realize that Chinese women made faster progress in athletics than
men.69
63
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-5.
See Id. at 26-7.
65
See Id.
66
Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 166.
67
See Jinxia, surpra note 3, at 30-5.
68
Id.
69
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 32.
64
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Even though Chinese women were making faster progress than men, the Sports Ministry
in 1961 “pointed out that the level of women’s sports performance was lower than the rest of the
world, and that emphasis should be placed on the development of women’s sport. 70 China
realized that further development of female athletes could improve the whole standard of
Chinese competitive sport and serve as evidence of gender equality in the New China. 71 The
additional resources produced significant results as it became noticeable in the early 1960’s that
Chinese women had surpassed their male counterparts in terms of world ranking performances in
basketball, volleyball, speed skating, and shooting and Chinese women set Asian records in
virtually every event.72 The success continued from 1961 to 1965 where Chinese women won
three world championships and broke world records forty times.73
The early years of the Cultural Revolution created a period of time where sport was
severely discouraged and the participants were ultimately punished. Despite this attitude, sex
equality and women’s emancipation was vigorously promoted by Chairman Mao.74 “Local and
national government and sports bodies provided equal opportunities, in terms of finance,
coaching and training, to young girls who had sports talent and a worker-peasant-soldier
background.”75 The emphasis on resources created many national female heroines such as Zen
Guiying76, Pan Duo77, and the Women’s Table Tennis Team in 1975. The success of young
female athletes is difficult to measure on an international stage due to the turmoil of the country
70
In 1962, the Sports Ministry re-emphasized that all professional teams should pay particular attention to recruit
and train women athletes. See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-4.
71
See Id.
72
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 51.
73
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-5.
74
See Id. at 224-6.
75
See Id.
76
Zen Guiying broke four national records at the national swimming championships in 1973 and became the top
swimmer of the year. See Id. at 231.
77
After climbing the summit of Mount Everest in 1975 with eight males Paul Duo paid tribute Chairman Mao when
she stated: “In our new society Chairman Mao supports women. We shall not let him down. So I determined to
conquer the mountain and to prove the fallacies of Confucius that men are superior to women.” Id.
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but the Cultural Revolution served to help “pave the way and lay down the stepping-stones for
the success of female athletes after the Revolution when China came back fully on the
international sports stage in the 1980’s.”78
2. Success of Young Female Athletes During the Olympic Strategy (1980present)
In the early 1980’s, China developed an Olympic Strategy which channeled the best of
limited national resources to special and intensive training for potential gold medalists.79
Women’s sports obtained special treatment and specific support at all levels during the strategy
because China’s government recognized women’s success was superior to their male
counterparts.80 For example, “the number of women athletes stayed relatively stable while the
total number of athletes decreased from 17,974 in 1979 to 16,892 in 1992.”81 It was also
common for elite women athletes to be furnished with “male sparring partners.” 82 The emphasis
on Chinese women athletes was so prevalent that Hu Yiaoband, the General Secretary of the
Party, pointed out that “the indomitable and tenacious character displayed by Chinese women
athletes embodied the new Chinese nation and brought it to the notice of the whole world.”83
“The swimming coach Chen Yunpeng said that ‘the outstanding achievements made by female
athletes… have encouraged Chinese sports authorities to channel wider participation and higher
technical standards among women.”84
From the outset of the Olympic Strategy, Chinese women athletes have led their country
to international success. “Not only have they made remarkable progress from virtual obscurity
78
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-7.
See Id. at 224-8
80
See Jinxia, surpra note 3, at 30-5.
81
See Jinxia, surpra note 26, at 107.
82
Male sparring partners were male athletes summoned to train with women in order to improve their techniques
and strength. See Id.
83
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-8.
84
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 140.
79
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to world champions and record breakers they have far surpassed the performance of their male
compatriots in international sport.”85 In 1979, it was the 15 year old female gymnast Ma
Yanhing who won the first world title in the world gymnastic championship and was later
followed by many female world champions in fencing, judo, shooting, diving, table tennis and
badminton.86 The first major dominant Chinese team was the women’s volleyball team who
defeated Japan and won the World Cup in 1981.87 The women’s volleyball team went on to win
five world titles in succession between 1981 and 1986 and became the first athletes regarded as
heroines and models for all.88 Women athletes continued to represent China in sports from 1985
to 1993 with “404 top sportswomen at international level, accounting for 51 percent of all
Chinese athletes at that rank.”89 One of the most glaring examples of women’s success in sports
at the international level was in 1998 where “China won eighty-three world championships and
broke thirty-one world records sixty-eight times.”90 Of these, women won fifty championships
and broke twenty eight world records sixty-five times.91
As stated earlier, the Olympic Strategy was primarily focused on the success of athletes
in the Olympics games.92 Women’s contributions to China’s Olympic record since the beginning
of the Olympic Strategy are remarkable and unique to China in many ways.93 Aside from 1984,
Chinese women athletes have won the majority of the medals brought home by China and have
85
E.g. James Riordan & Dong Jinxia, Chinese Women and Sport, in, Sport, Physical Education in China 159-2
(James Riordan & Robin E. Jones, eds., 1999).
86
See Jinxia, surpra note 26, at 102.
87
See Id.
88
See Id. at 103.
89
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-9.
90
See Id.
91
See Id.
92
The Minister of Sport from 1990 to 2000 claimed that “the highest aim of Chinese sport is success in the Olympic
Games. We must concentrate our resources on it. To raise the flag at the Olympics is our major responsibility.” See
Hong, supra note 20, at 26-8.
93
See Riordan & Jones, supra note 86, at 159-2.
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surpassed their male counterparts in gold medals every Olympics.94 Female athletes are not only
simply winning the most medals but are also winning them in more sports than Chinese men.95
From 1998 to 2008, women won 88 gold medals in 18 sports96 while men only won 61 gold
medals in 11 sports.97 The fame of women athletes does not end on the Olympic platform but
extends to their home country where they are often greeted with celebrity and role model
status.98 Despite the fame, this paper focuses on what young Chinese women must do in order to
attain such stature and what happens once they can’t perform?
Table 1.1
Chinese women’s and men’s contributions to China’s results in the Summer Olympics 1984-2008
Year
City
Gold
1984
Los Angeles
15
1988
Seoul
1992
Silver
Bronze
Total
Men(gold) Women(gold)
22
Total by
Women
10
8
9
8
7
5
11
12
28
15
2
3
Barcelona
16
22
16
54
34
5
11
1996
Atlanta
16
22
12
50
28
7
9
2000
Sydney
28
16
15
59
35
11*
16*
2004
Athens
32
17
14
63
39
12*
19*
2008
Beijing
51
21
28
100
57
24
27
94
See Table 1.1
Id.
96
Chinese women won gold medals in track and field, table tennis, swimming, gymnastics, shooting, judo, diving,
badminton, Tae Kwon Do, weightlifting, tennis, wrestling, volleyball, artistic gymnastics, and fending. New York
Times, A Map of Olympic Medals, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html.
97
Chinese men won gold medals in artistic gymnastics, badminton, boxing, canoe, diving, fencing, shooting, table
tennis, weightlifting, gymnastics, and track and field. Id.
98
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-9.
95
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D.
Beijing Olympics and the Use of Elite Sport for International Standing
To China, hosting the 2008 Olympics is about more than just winning gold. It is a chance
for China to elevate itself on an international pedestal and establish their role as a global power
in sport as well as in the economy.99 One Chinese writer described success in Olympics as:
Victory in the Olympics or World Cup can bring instant acclaim, international
respectability and status. Sport, therefore, is no longer used merely to judge the
competitive level of a country’s athletes, but it is also an instrument to demonstrate the
physical, economic, military and cultural superiority of a political system. 100
For a century, China had been humiliated by the West and Japan and considered the “Sick Man
of Asia.”101 This feeling of inferiority explains the Gallup Poll finding that 98.7 percent of
China’s citizens supported Beijing’s efforts to hold the games.102 He Zhenliang, International
Olympic Committee member and former vice-president of the China Olympic Committee,
explained the international impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as follows:
Indeed, the 2008 Olympics will serve as a catalyst for further reform and the
liberalization process in China. Coupled with the far-reaching impact of China’s access
to the World Trade Organization, China’s economy will become more closely linked
internationally;… it will be a milestone in world development.103
In sum, the 2008 Beijing Olympics provided an opportunity for China to formally establish itself
as a modern global economic power.
Ever since the introduction of escalating media rights and corporate sponsorship in the
1984 Los Angeles Olympics, hosting the Olympics is seen as the “one of the most high-profile
Countries such as Cuba, the Soviet Union, and East Germany have used international success in sport to “attain a
measure of recognition and prestige internationally” when they have been faced with boycott and/or subversion from
big powers. See Riordan & Jones, supra note 86, at 159-7,8.
100
See Id. at 159-7.
101
Jiang Yung has stated that “in modern time, China has suffered from domestic unrest and foreign aggression, and
has been in the position of backward underdog. China has been described as ‘the sick man of Asia’, ‘a tragic race.’
See Id. at 159-8.
102
See Jinxia, supra note 3, at 37-2.
103
See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-10.
99
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global commodities.”104 The economic benefits of hosting the Olympics are quite substantial.
First of all, the Beijing organizing committee is expected to receive a billion dollars from
television rights and sponsorship through the International Olympic Committee.105 Advertising
for the games begins months and even years before the Games even start and continue through
the full two weeks.106 The Olympic Games popularity has increased through the years with an
estimated 34.4 billion global viewer hours for the 2004 Summer Games.107 Secondly, “billions
of dollars of infrastructure building and related activities are expected to boost China’s annual
GDP by 0.3 percent.”108 Finally, the world’s top 500 enterprises are eager to invest in China’s
massive consumer market.109 “The number of new automobiles in Beijing is expected to be
more than 24.5 million; the demand for digital products will be worth some 50 billion yuan; and
for food and clothing 500 to 600 billion yuan even before the games start.”110
II.
Structure of the Elite Sports System under the Olympic Strategy
Jiang Zemin, the General Secretary of the Party, stated “the success of American sport
depends on its economic power; the success of Russian sport depends on its rich resources and
experience of training elite athletes; the success of Chinese sport depends on ‘Juguo tizhi’“whole country support for the elite sport system.’”111 But what does juguo tizhi actually mean
to Chinese citizens and athletes and how is it structured? In 2001, Yuan Weimin, the Sports
Minister, officially defined the term to mean “that central and local governments should use their
104
Through the use of extensive corporate sponsorship, the organizing committee of the 1984 Olympics reported a
surplus of more than $22 million and whereby created the framework for the political economy of future games.
Alan Tomlinson, Olympic Values, Beijing’s Olympic Games, and the Universal Market, in Owning the Olympics:
Narrative of the New China 67-2 (Monroe E. Price & Daniel Dayan eds., 2008).
105
See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-10.
106
See Holger Press, Signaling Growth: China’s Major Benefit of Staging the Olympics in Beijing 2008, available
at http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hapr/winter07_gov/preuss.pdf.
107
See Id.
108
See Jinxia, supra note 3, at 37-2.
109
“Beijing expects investment to reach more than 3,000 billion yuan by 2008. See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-10.
110
See Id.
111
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-10.
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power to channel adequate financial and human resources throughout the country to support elite
sport in order to win glory for the nation.”112 The main characteristics of the elite sports system
are its centralized management and administration structure, the guaranteed financial and human
resources from the whole country, and its specialized and selective training system. 113
A.
Centralized Management and Administrative Structure
The Chinese sports administrative system is based on the wider social system in China
with a vast hierarchy with power flowing down from the top. 114 “The national governmental
body, the State Physical Education and Sports Commission (the Sports Ministry) is responsible
for the formulation and implementation of sports policy and administration of national sports
programs.”115
Sports Ministry is a government controlled and sponsored department that
frequently interacts with the ministries of Education and National Defense.116 It was originally a
centralized structure but transformed into a multi-level and multi-channel system in the mid
1990’s.117 The Sports Ministry at this time also changed its name from the State Physical
Education and Sports Commission to China General Administration of Sport.118 Figure 1.3
illustrates the administrative structure after the Sports Law of 1995 was passed.
The Sports Law of 1995 was the first sports law implemented by the government of
China.119 It is a reflection of China’s adherence to its traditional administrative practice of state
controlled sport but also establishes China’s shift to a more western style funding through
112
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-10.
See Id.; See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-2.
114
See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-4.
115
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-10.
116
See Id.
117
See Id.
118
See Id.
119
The new regulations set the framework for the development of sport through eight chapters and fifty-six clauses.
See Robin Jones, Sport in China, in Sport and Physical Education in China 1-5 (James Riordan & Robin E. Jones
eds., 1999).
113
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nongovernmental initiatives.120 Specifically, twenty sports management centers were established
to manage training and commercial interests of the athletes.121 Regulation 42 addresses the
nongovernmental sponsorship wherein it states, “sports organizations are encouraged to raise
money through sponsorship by business companies and individuals.”122 Even though funding
was opened up to nongovernmental sponsorship, the amount of governmental funding remains
vast due to the Beijing Olympics and will be discussed in detail in the following section.
The Sports Law “formalized the establishment of market-oriented, western-style sports associations to carry our
national sports policy, develop new sources of funding, and impose sanctions against athletes for non-criminal
violations of antidoping and other organizational rules. James A. R. Nafziger & Li Wei, China's Sports Law, 46 Am.
J. Comp. L. 453 (1998).
121
See Id.
122
See Jones, supra note 120, at 1-5.
120
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Central Government
State Council
China General Administration of Sport
and the Chinese Olympic Committee
9 Depts. of the CGAS
National
Training and
National teams
20 sports management
centers (including
sports federations)
Provincial sports teams
and academics
Source: Beijing Ambitions
by Fan Hong
Provincial, city and
county sports
schools
Provincial sports
commissions
Provincial
sports
management
centers
City and
county
sports
committees
City sports
management
centers
Figure 1.3 Current Administrative
Structure of Chinese Sport
The Sports Law also addresses privileges and responsibilities of athletes in Chapter 7. “It
grants allowances and bonuses in amounts that correspond to a ranking of individual athletes and
ensures college enrollment and job security” for the top athletes.123 Under the Sports Law
athletes are also strictly prohibited from using banned drugs and gambling on any sports
events.124
123
124
Punishment for violating these laws includes administrative as well as criminal
See Nafziger & Wei, supra note 121, at 470.
See Id.
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sanctions.125 However, in practice, only the sports associations have imposed effective sanctions
against doping by athletes.126 The strict regulations on the books dealing with doping were likely
established in direct response to international scandal and concern regarding Chinese athletes’
use of steroids in the early 90’s.127 The included provisions provide a strong regulated law for
Chinese sports but it is the excluded provisions that speak volumes about the rights of athletes in
China. There are no regulations recognizing adjudicable rights of athletes and, ultimately, the
Sports Law denies athletes an appropriate remedy for the most serious breaches of fundamental
rights they often incur.128
B.
Structure of Sports Schools
“It is not a secret that the success of Chinese sports depends on the remarkable system
which turns tiny children into sports stars.”129 As of 2004, there were an estimated 80,617
professional athletes in China and two thirds of those are child athletes.
130
Most of these
athletes began their careers at the early age of five and are sent to government sponsored sports
schools.131
The sports school system was adopted from the Soviet Union model, with its
professional coaches, sports medicine and science, government sponsored sports clubs, sports
ranking system, and residential boarding schools.132 The school system is a well-organized and
tightly structured three-level pyramid that is illustrated by Figure 1.4. The base of the pyramid is
referred to as the primary level where sports schools at county, city, and provincial levels are
125
See Id.
See Id.
127
This will be discussed in further detail in Part IV.
128
See Nafziger & Wei, supra note 121, at 473.
129
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-1.
130
See Id.
131
See Id.
132
China took the model and expanded it. For example, in 1990 the Soviet Union had forty-six sports boarding
schools while China had 150. In 1991 the USSR had 15,000 professional coaches while China had 18,173. See
Riordan & Jones, supra note 86, at 159-9.
126
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formed.133 Only approximately twelve percent of the child athletes will become a professional
athlete and move up to the intermediate level.134 The selective system continues until only the
top athletes make it to the high level of national squads and Olympic teams. The demanding
nature of the selective procedure at such an early age is extensive and leads to detrimental effects
on the minds and bodies of the young athletes.
3,222
Olympic
athletes
15,924
National athletes
46,758
Professional athletes
372,290
Young athletes in Sports Schools
Source: Beijing Ambitions by Fan Hong
Figure 1.4 Pyramid of the Selective System
C.
Training Methods of the Elite Sports System
"In China, everybody seems to have the same story - they were identified when they were
four because they had long arms or double-jointed elbows, and then they're incorporated into this
little system that is designed to build champions.”135 This “”little system” has gained China a
133
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-14.
See Id.
135
Mike Jensen, Chinese Sports School a Gold Factory, Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 23, 2008, available at
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20080823_Chinese_sports_school_a_gold_factory.html.
134
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reputation for having “one of the most effective systems in the world for systematically selecting
and producing sporting talent from a very young age.”136 However, the process by which the
young children must train is brutal at times and they receive no sympathy because “sports
schools are designed to produce gold medalists, regardless of the human cost.”137
Initial recruitment of young athletes begins within China’s regular academic schools
where special sports classes are held to determine which students have the best sporting
potential.138 Sporting potential can be determined by visual athleticism but is often times simply
determined by the height, arm span, bone density, and flexibility of the young child. 139 The
chosen students are then selected to go to local sports schools where they follow a “fully planned
program of sports training and education that leaves them little time for themselves.” 140 It is a
rigorous schedule where five and six year old children get up at 6 a.m. to do general warm-up
exercises for one to two hours.141 The children then eat breakfast, continue training till noon and
then eat lunch.142 After lunch, they have four hours of general education class until it is time for
dinner.143 After dinner there is an additional two hours of training for the children.144
The intensive training schedule is a stepping stone for the child athletes who are striving
to make it to the provincial sports academies or training centers. 145 The academies are boarding
136
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-14.
Louisa Lim, Boarding Schools Generate China’s Sports Stars, NPR, December 12, 2008, available at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92479526
138
Sports profiles are created to track the children’s abilities and will follow the child if they go on to a sports
school. Robin Jones, Sport and Physical Education in School and University, in Sport and Physical Education in
China 90-20 (James Riordan & Robin E. Jones eds., 1999).
139
Ariana Eunjung Cha, In China, the Tale of the Tape Measure, Washington Post, August 3, 2008, available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/02/AR2008080201271.html
140
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
141
The training schedules vary by the local sports schools. This is just an example of one such schedule. See Id.
142
See Id.
143
See Id.
144
See Id.
145
See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-15.
137
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schools where the athletes live together and train together throughout the day.146 The athletes
train together from between 5-10 hours a day for 5-6 days a week with a main goal of making it
as a professional athlete and possibly an Olympic athlete. 147 Dreams and aspirations are not
enough in China’s sports system because “success in competition is the main criterion for
remaining at the sports school and failure or lack of progress results in students returning to their
normal school.”148 Out of the 400,000 young children enrolled in the 3,000 sports schools, only
five percent will be able to reach the national and Olympic athlete status.149
The training methods that are utilized at the sports schools are based on the 1964 method
of the “three non-afraids and five toughnesses.”150 The three non-afraids include not being afraid
of hardship, difficulty or injury, and the five toughnesses include toughness of spirit, body, skill,
training and competition.151 China has adapted the method to include an emphasis on “coaching
techniques, sports science, sports psychology, sports medicine, better facilities andequipment.”152
Nevertheless, China’s training methods remain intense and focused solely on winning regardless
of the cost to the children.
D.
Financial Support for the Elite Sports System
Under the Juguo Tizhi and the Olympic Strategy, all available resources for sport were
concentrated on elite sport.153 The Chinese government does not publicize the exact amount of
money it spends on elite sports per year but there have been estimates made throughout the
years. The financial investment from the Chinese government has steadily increased in the past
three decades: “in the decade of 1978-1988, government sports funding rose from 254 million to
146
See Id.
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-2.
148
See Jones, supra note 139, at 90-20.
149
See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-7.
150
See Id.
151
See Id.
152
See Id.
153
See Riordan & Jones, supra note 86, at 159-8.
147
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1 billion yuan154, an over 200 percent increase.”155 The 1990’s were no different with an
estimated 16.6 billion yuan spent in 1991 and 28.4 billion spent in 1996.156
As for funding for the Olympics, it is estimated that China invested US$260 million in
success at the 1988 Olympics with an average of US$52 million for each gold medal won.157
Once China won the bid for the Olympics in 2001 the financial investment in sport increased
substantially because China needed to implement the goals it had set for the 2008 Olympics. 158
“The Sports Ministry Department of Finance has stated that between 2001 and 2004 the central
government is augmenting its budget by 1 billion yuan (about US$122 million) every year and
between 2005-2008 the figure will be 2 billion yuan (about US$244 million) each year,
exclusively for the 2008 Olympic Games.”159 This means the Sports Ministry will receive an
estimated 27 billion yuan in 2008 just for the 2008 Olympic Games. 160 The massive government
funding for the Olympics games illustrates just how important winning gold medals are to the
Chinese government and its citizens.
III.
Factors Behind Female Presence In Elite Sports
As discussed earlier, China’s long tradition of women in sport and its state sponsored
support for women athletes provides an explanation as to why there are a higher number of
successful women athletes in China than other nations. But what other factors cause young girls
to move away from their family and submit themselves to a painstaking schedule at such a young
It is estimated that US$1 is equal to 5 yuan in the 1990’s. See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-13.
See Riordan & Jones, supra note 86, at 159-8.
156
These estimations do not include the budget spent on training facilities and equipment, the cost of national and
international competitions and other activities related to elite sport. See Hong, supra note 20, at 26-13.
157
This number is in comparison to the host country only spending $9 million per gold medal. See Riordan & Jones,
supra note 86, at 159-9.
158
The Sports Ministry immediately issued two directives after winning the Olympic bid. “The Outline Strategy for
the Winning Olympic Medals 2001-2010” and the “Strategic Plan for Winning Olympics Gold Medals in 2008”
outlined a plan for how to win gold medals by increasing the type of sports they participate in and how many
athletes they train for the Olympics. See Hong, supra note 6, at 10-13.
159
See Id.
160
This number does not include additional special funding for particular programs related to Olympic preparation.
See Id.
154
155
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age?
An in-depth look into the children’s socioeconomic background and the elite sport
system’s achievement based incentives provide further insight as to why children and their
parents encourage participation at the possible cost of injury and abuse to their children.161
A.
Socioeconomic Status of Successful Women Athletes
The popularity of athletes like the Ma Family Army162 and the Chinese Women’s
Volleyball team of the 1980’s have reinforced the premise that the majority of successful
Chinese female athletes have come from rural or urban working class origins. 163 A 1996 study
conducted by Dong Jinxia verified that a higher percentage of elite female athletes are from
lower class origins compared to the Chinese male athletes.164 The study indicated that “57.7
percent of the mothers and 31.1 percent of the fathers of female athletes were from
worker/peasant(manual) classes while the figures for male athletes were 51.67 and 23.31 percent,
respectively.”165 The study also indicated that “females from the manual class (worker/peasants)
were more likely to engage in ‘strength’ and combat sports, and swimming” while those from
“non-working class (cadre) families tended to take up ball games and demonstration sports.”166
These results are partly due to the traditional belief in China that intellectual education is
161
See Dong Jinxia, Mobility, Stratification and Sportswomen in the New China, Sport in Society, 4.3, 1-26
(Autumn 2001).
162
This nickname refers to the Liaoning Women’s Long and Middle Distance Running Team coached by Ma Junren
which became internationally acclaimed during the mid 1990’s. See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 165.
163
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 143.
164
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 5.
165
A similar study done on Australian athletes found the direct opposite with 42 percent of the female athletes
coming from higher class backgrounds compared to 33 percent of male athletes. See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 5
166
See Id.
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superior to engaging in sports167 and therefore, manual class families were more likely to allow
their children to engage in sports.168
The results are also partly due to the status of an elite athlete. As early as the 1950’s the
elite athlete has been regarded as a special and favored occupational group similar to a “state
worker in terms of wages, city residence and welfare benefits.”169 In a country where 70% of the
230 million illiterate citizens are women170 and full equality of career opportunity has not been
achieved, there leaves little doubt as to why sport is seen as a highly attractive avenue for women
to provide themselves a secure future.171 Even the women who have been able to take advantage
of the newly available careers have not escaped the “traditional lack of respect for women and
the corresponding low position of women and the division of labor.”172
The historical attitude of sport as a lower class activity coupled with the existing
inequality in upward mobility provides one explanation as to why elite sportswomen are more
likely to have lower class roots than male athletes. A corresponding reason lies in the specific
nature and philosophy of the rural class work ethic.173 The qualities required in the intensive
sports training of an elite athlete have distinct similarities to rural peasant work such as a strong
body, mental toughness, and the ability to withstand long hours of work.174 Coaches175 and
“From the Song Dynasty onwards (that is, after 960), education for the elite in China increasingly emphasized the
mind at the expense of the body; henceforth sports tended to be marginalized in the education of the ruling class and
its male offspring.” This attitude that sport is done by the lower-class, uneducated people still exists in the minds of
the Chinese and highlights why it would be an acceptable activity for women to partake in. See Riordan & Jinxia,
supra note 11, at 145.
168
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 6.
169
See Id. at 3.
170
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 143.
171
Yang Shengmei, a swimmer from Shangxi province, explained her reason for entering sport was to have a job
have service years calculated. “Whatever the job, permanent employment (the ‘iron-rice-bowl’- Chinese word tie
fan wan) would provide me with a secure future.” See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 3.
172
See Id. at 8.
173
See Id; see also Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 143.
174
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 143.
175
Ma Junren specifically recruited girls from villages because they were “more honest, obedient, and hard-working.
See Id. at 144.
167
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officials176 have also found that female athletes are more obedient than their male
counterparts.177 Female athletes’ superior obedience can be attributed to philosophical traditions
of Confucianism which taught “women to obey men(father, husband, sons) and to be humble,
compliant and respectful.”178 Therefore, “both a rural background and vestiges of Confucian
philosophy stressing women’s subordination to men have certain implications for women’s
greater involvement in and success in sport.”179
B.
Importance of Achievement-Based Incentives
Due to the lower class backgrounds of female athletes, the achievement-based incentives
of the elite sports system are particularly attractive to female athletes and their families.
Participation in sport creates a rare chance for girls to flee the countryside with its arduous
fieldwork and relocate to the cities to win prestige and earn money for their families and
themselves.180
Aside from the money, migrating to the city means “better educational
opportunities, a more stable income as a wage earner, easier access to the mass media, and above
all, from the perspective of an athlete, better access to modern facilities and coaching.”181
The Chinese elite sports system strongly encourages achievement based incentives
because the system is based on the theory that “the talented few are only produced if differential
rewards are attached to such positions.”182 Under this theory, “salary and bonus scales, food and
medical standards, performance subsidies, and retirement allowances are all based on
One male sports official stated: “Truly, women are more able ‘to eat bitterness,’ endure hardship and labour. For
thousands of years they did all the housework, they rose very early and toiled all day long, then went to bed and got
up again. That ability, that tradition, persists. Women are therefore more disciplines and obedient than men. If you
are working with three women and three male athletes, you have to watch the men a lot closer; they’re inclined to
sneak off and cheat on workouts.” Id. at 143-144.
177
Id.
178
Id.
179
Id.
180
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 10.
181
See Id. at 11.
182
See Id. at 6.
176
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achievement.”183 In the Olympic context, a gold medalist received 150,000 yuan from the
central government in 2000 not including the numerous sponsorships that would also be offered
to the athlete.184 For example, the female double Olympic gold medalist Deng Yaping, received
a multi-million yaun bonus after her victories in 1992 and 1996.185 One can only imagine how
much the incentives have increased in the twelve years since her victories.
The incentives are not only advantageous for the athlete but also for their families. The
story of Olympic swimming champion Qian Hong provides a strong illustration of how the
achievement-based incentives affect the athlete’s families as well:
After I joined our provincial swimming team, especially after I achieved good results in
national competitions, people’s attitudes to my family underwent a U-turn. In the past,
my family was very poor and despised by relatives and neighbors. Now they admired my
achievements and became more friendly towards my family.186
Lu Li’s family after she won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in gymnastics was provided with a
newly furnished home and her father was promoted from factory floor worker to office clerk.187
There is no question as to why families from the lower class and rural areas strongly encourage
and provide constant reinforcement to their young daughters to ensure sports participation during
childhood, adolescence and adulthood.188 A study conducted by Zhong Bingshas found that
“37.6 percent of athletes considered family background as the most influential factor behind their
involvement in sport.”189 These young rural females are motivated by their family support and
the achievement based incentives because the incentives provide a rare chance for the girls and
their families to obtain upward social mobility.190
183
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 16.
See Jinxia, supra note 3, at 37.
185
See Id.
186
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 4.
187
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-11.
188
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 175-178.
189
See Id.
190
See Id.
184
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IV.
Sacrifices and Consequences of the Elite Sports System
Sport can be used as a barometer for the society in which it is played.191 “While it can
encapsulate the contested and shifting dynamics of stratified societies and challenge or reshape
those dynamics, it remains essentially a stark embodiment of the realities of inequality and
manifest forms of social division even in the most socialist of nations.”192 This is particularly
true in the context of China’s elite sports system.
Young female athletes sacrifice their
childhood and educational opportunities by being aggressively recruited to sports schools before
they know what sports are; trained for over eights hours a day with little to no education
provided causing physical and emotional damage; and offered no real career opportunities once
their bodies can no longer compete.193 The plight of female athletes underscores the true reality
that modern China still adheres to a patriarchal system with militaristic methods to control the
females of their society.
A.
Physical Sacrifices and Consequences
The Chinese saying “a severe teacher brings up brilliant disciplines” encapsulates the
theory behind sports training in China.194 From the age of six young females must endure
immense pain and exhaustion in order to realize their dreams of being an Olympic athlete. It has
even been documented that female athletes endure physical abuse from their coaches if they are
not training to their potential.195 Physical sacrifice and abuse is not entirely unique to females
but female athletes have been considered “willing victims”196 by coaches and academics due to
191
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 15.
See Id.
193
See Id. at 20.
194
Calum MacLeod, China ties Olympic gold to quest for worldwide esteem, USA TODAY, June 13, 2007, available
at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2007-06-13-china-sports-schools-1a-cover_N.html.
195
See Ma Family Army section.
196
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-4.
192
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their culturally engrained obedience to men.197 Since most coaches in the system are men, a
father-daughter relationship with a superior-inferior framework is created and impressed upon
the young female athlete reinforcing the traditional patriarchal norms of society. 198 From a
young age females are taught to be “quiescent, obedient, nurturing, hard-working, passive,
supportive, self-sacrificing, and pleasing to men.”199 These culturally embedded norms create a
tolerance in young females that allows them to withstand the physical anguish that training
causes.200
Training through pain or injury is an everyday occurrence for young female athletes
growing up in the sports schools. A Time magazine article entitled “The Price of Gold”
highlighted the daily struggle of young female athletes:
One by one, the little girls walk to the wooden blocks and extend their legs into the splits,
one callused foot balancing on each block, their straining bodies hovering just above the
ground. Coach Yang Yaojun, his sweatpants hiked high over his belly, ambles over to the
girls, smiles and hands the nearest one a stopwatch. The girls, who are six and seven
years old, do not smile back. Teetering on the blocks, they wait as Yang straddles each
leg in turn, resting his 70-kg frame on their outstretched limbs. No matter how tough the
girls are, no matter how much resolve they have mustered, the tears come within seconds.
They do not cry out, though. They just well up soundlessly and stare at the seconds
ticking down on the stopwatch. After half a minute, Yang stands up and lifts the girls off
the blocks. They stagger with the first step, their oversized thigh muscles visibly
twitching. By the second or third step, the tremors and the tears are gone. When a child
does this six days a week all year long, save a short holiday at Lunar New Year, there are
only so many tears she can shed.201
Dong Jiangqing, a judo coach at Qingda Sports School in eastern China, stated “Chinese girls are willing to work
harder and eat more bitterness than the boys.” Hannah Beech, China's Women Spark a Gold Rush, TIME, Aug. 19,
2008, available at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1833876,00.html.
198
“A coach in China physically and mentally takes care of his athlete’s health and skills, just as a father takes care
of his daughter.” See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 203.
199
See Id.
200
See Id.
201 Hannah Beech, The Price of Gold, TIME, August 9, 2008, available at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,678686,00.html.
197
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Consequences of this type of training include stunted physical growth, delayed menstruation till
18 or 19, and increased chance of injury.202 As in the case of China, female athletes are trained
to withstand the pain and “not show weakness, no matter how grueling the exercise.”203 Due to
this training mentality, young girls are exposing their bodies to pain and playing through injuries
that can eventually cause their bodies to deteriorate.
The coach identified in the Times article justified his training by saying, “the Chinese
race knows how to endure hardship. Our job is to push these kids to their limits, so they can
perform gloriously for our nation.”204 However, evidence of athletes like Zheng Jie205 and Zhao
Yonghua206 demonstrate that coaches push young female athletes beyond their limits in order to
win.207 Even Chen Peide, former director of the Zhejiang Province Sports Bureau, admits that
sports system philosophy of “urging people to tenaciously strive to succeed, to be faster, to jump
higher, to be stronger, and to win more gold medals usually comes at the expense of the athletes’
health.”208 Under this system, decisions regarding competing through injuries are left to the
202
With bone density severely weakened, as a result of the lack of a menstrual cycle, and the complexity of jumps,
gymnasts are vulnerable to a whole host on injuries, especially stress fractures. See David Paulo, Young Athletes and
Competitive Sports: Exploit and Exploitation, 7 Int’l J. Child Rts. 53 (1999): 53-58.
203
See Beech, supra note 203.
204
See Id.
205
Zheng Jie is a former top female double tennis player in China. She had suffered a painful ankle injury and her
doctor told her that if she kept playing she risked a permanent injury. Her coach denied her request to not play in the
upcoming French Open match. After she lost the match her coach told the media she had too much concern her
injuries. See Id.
206
Zhao Yonghua was a nationally acclaimed skiing champion but she is not bedridden at the age of 31. During her
training she was hospitalized and diagnosed with severe diabetes. Instead of returning home for rest, she was sent to
winter training with the Chinese team. Due to the training she is now bedridden with a permanent IV and unable to
speak. See Louisa Lim, Many Chinese Athletes Find No Glory in Retirement, December 12, 2008, available at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92520419
207
Howard W. French, China Presses Injured Athletes in Quest for Gold, The New York Times, June 20, 2008,
available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/world/asia/20olympics.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/F/Fre
nch,%20Howard%20W.%20French
208
See Id.
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coaches and officials of the sporting establishment.209 However, it is not the coaches who have
to live with the consequences of those decisions. Zhao Yong at 31 years of age has been
bedridden and unable to speak due to exhaustion for the past ten years because of the decisions
that were made by her coaches.210
1.
Ma Family Army
One extreme example of the sacrifices and consequences of physical training that
females must endure is the “Ma Family Army”211 His coaching methods were cruel, militaristic,
and compared to an “ancient gladiator trainer.”212 The team, which consisted of 14 to 16 year
old girls,213 ran almost a marathon a day from the highest altitudes in China causing their toenails
to turn black from bruising.214 The girls led a militaristic life of mandated short hair with track
suits and no bras215, no face cream or makeup, no boyfriends, no music after Coach Ma smashed
all evidence of music with a hammer, no education classes, and no private letters allowed unless
Coach Ma had read and examined them first.216 Coach Ma had complete control over every
aspect of the young women’s lives and treated them in a slave-like manner by having the girls
wash his feet everyday.217 His most accomplished runner, Wang Jinxia218 was “beaten by Ma
209
Dr. Wang Yubin, the medical director for the sports injury department at Shanghai East International Medical
Center, admitted that “the athletes themselves basically have no idea of their injuries and they usually don’t have a
say in how they are treated.” French, supra note 209.
210
See Lim, supra note 208.
211
This nickname refers to the Liaoning Women’s Long and Middle Distance Running Team coached by Ma Junren
which became internationally acclaimed during the mid 1990’s. See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 165.
212
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-5.
213
He preferred girls from villages because they could more easily withstand the hard work. See Riordan & Jinxia,
supra note 11, at 144.
214
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 168.
215
Coach Ma humiliated Liu Dong, the 5,000 m world champion, into retirement at the peak of her career when he
found out she was wearing a bra and called her “a prostitute who wants to attract men’ in front of the whole team.
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-5.
216
See Id.
217
See Id.
218
She is the 1994 world record holder in 1,500m and 10,000m and recipient of the Jesse Owens Trophy, the
pretigous athletic award given. See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 144.
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every week for her inappropriate behavior.”219 Ma’s cruelty went as far as to keep the death of
Wang’s brother from her for several weeks because she had to compete in upcoming
championships.220 Coach Ma discussed his abusive training methods as “too simple sometimes.
I would scold them [his athletes] or beat them when they were lazy or disobedient. But I only did
it for their own good. If we are not prepared to suffer bitterness… how can China catch up with
world levels in track and fields?”221 Instead of China punishing Coach Ma for his cruelty once it
became public, he was “promoted from a coach to a vice director of Liaoning Provincial Sports
Commission and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for his
contribution to winning the gold medals.”222 The “Ma Family Army” truly exemplifies the
Chinese government’s use of young female athletes to obtain gold medals at any cost.
B.
Emotional Consequences
Due to the intense training, verbal and physical abuse, and non-existent childhood, young
female athletes suffer from psychological and emotional damage.223 The athletes are pressured
to perform and succeed in order to satisfy “adults’ ambitions and desires for financial rewards, be
it the parents, trainers, sponsors, and/or federations.”224 On the eve of the 2008 Olympics, Cheng
Fei, the most decorated member of the Chinese women’s gymnastic team, stated, “So many
people expect us to get gold medals, and it’s really a great pressure for us. Sometimes I feel it’s
hard to breathe or even cry under the pressure, but once the competition begins, I will think
nothing and just strive for my best.”225 The immense pressure causes the athletes to feel as
219
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-10.
Coach Ma also kept the death of a runner’s father from her for the same reason. See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note
11, at 144.
221
See Paulo, supra note 204, at 64.
222
See Hong, supra note 17, at 224-10.
223
See Paulo, supra note 204, at 59.
224
See Id.
225
Evan Osnos, Pressure Fuels China’s Athletes, Chicago Tribune, August 17, 2008, available at
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/aug/17/nation/chi-china-pressure_osnosaug17.
220
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though they are not training to win for themselves but for the pride of their parents, coaches, as
well as China as a whole.226 Chinese women work harder and through cruel circumstances
because they fear they will “bring shame to their family, their country, and even their peers.”227
Ultimately, these athletes have lost their families and the chance to be a child while shouldering
the weight of adulthood as early as the age of six.228
1.
Reputational Harm and Shame from Scandal
Under the pressure to win from coaches and parents, Chinese female athletes have been
involved in scandals that “cast doubt on their sporting achievements and the very validity of the
records” and status of their country as a sporting nation.229 The publicity of the scandals brings
great shame onto the athlete causing them emotional distress and reputational harm in the
country. One such scandal involves the Chinese sportswomen’s use of performance-enhancing
drugs.230 The most recent and publicized drug scandal occurred at the Sydney airport in 1998
when “growth hormone was found in a flask of the Chinese swimmer Yuan Yuan’s luggage.”231
The Sydney event only validated the already conceived stereotype that Chinese female athletes
used steroids.232
“Since 1988 some 47 Chinese athletes have tested positive for anabolic
steroids; they include 38 in 1994 alone, including 11 swimmers.”233 The athlete’s penalties for
the drug use range from mandated sentences by the international sports federations to “moral
criticism” and possible legal action taken by China.234 Due to the extreme emphasis of China’s
elite sports systems on winning regardless of the cost, it is of no surprise that “personal
226
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-4.
See Id.
228
See Id.
229
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 131.
230
See Id.
231
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 141.
232
See Id.
233
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 131.
234
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 145.
227
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aspirations, pressure to achieve and the concomitant political and financial rewards” of winning
are the prime reasons behind the use of drugs by athletes. This is especially true for the female
athletes that have come from lower-income backgrounds because the “wealth, power and fame
achieved through sporting success could compensate for initial social hardships and provide
them with comfortable futures.”235 In the case of Zou Chunlan, a four time national champion in
weight lifting, she was told by her coach the pills were a nutrition booster and she trusted him.236
The steroids caused her to grow a beard and a prominent Adam’s apple and made her infertile.237
Chinese female athletes were more recently involved in scandal during the 2008 Beijing
Games. Under the Olympic rules, a gymnast must turn 16 years of age during the year of the
Olympics.238 The age of the competitors is important because “younger teenage girls can have an
advantage over older competitors due to their often smaller, more agile bodies and lighter
frames.”239 From the outset of the competition, commentators such as Bela Karolyi, the former
coach of gymnastics stars like Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, questioned the age of the
Chinese women’s gymnastic team due to the size of the girls.240 After the Chinese women's
gymnastics team won a gold medal in the team competition and won five medals in the
individual competitions, suspicions over the age of the gymnasts intensified.241 Reports from the
New York Times and other sources found that He Klexin and Jiang Yuyuan, two Chinese gold
235
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 148.
Jodi Xu, China’s Disposable Athletes, TIME, July 17, 2007, available at
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1644120,00.html
237
See Id.
238
See Julie Macur, Teeny-Tiny Matter of Age for China’s Gymnasts, The New York Times, August 9, 2008,
available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sports/olympics/10age.html?ref=sports.
239
See John Vause, Age of Chinese Gymnasts Investigated, CNN, August 22, 2008, available at
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/21/gymnasts.age/index.html
240
“The smallest of the six competitors is Deng Linlin, 4 feet 6 inches and 68 pounds. The team’s average size is 4-9
and 77 pounds. That is 3 ½ shorter and nearly 30 pounds lighter than the average for the United States team. Shawn
Johnson, a favorite in the all-around, is the only American gymnast both shorter than 5 feet (4-9) and lighter than
100 pounds (90).” See Macur, supra note 240.
241
See Id.
236
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medal gymnasts, may be as young as 14 years old.242 The United States coach of the 2000
gymnastics team went on record stating that “the [gold] medal was supposed to be ours, and we
should be given it. Now some girls are left crying forever while nothing is done about the
cheaters. If the I.O.C. is closing their eyes to this, they are proving that they have turned
completely political.”243 After two months of the official investigation into the age of the
Chinese gymnasts, the International Gymnastics Federation found there were no attempts by
China to falsify the ages of the gymnasts.244 Even though the gymnasts were cleared, there
remains a doubt as to whether they deserved the goal or won it by cheating once again. Scandals
such as these exemplify how China’s elite sports system has caused their female athletes to be so
consumed by the need to win and provide for their poor families that they risk their reputation
and years of hard work by taking performance-enhancing drugs and competing at too young of
an age.
C.
Post-Career Opportunities for Retired Female Athletes
“Once you win a world championship, you can go to college for free, or work, or become
an official. If you don’t, you get nothing but injuries all over your body. No diploma, no job, no
skill.”245 This is the dilemma young female athlete’s face when they involuntarily enter the elite
sports system at the age of six. Often times, young women who grow up in sports schools are
left without a proper education and are given limited options for careers outside of sports. 246 Zou
“The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He’s birthday as
Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts — now blocked in China but
viewable through Google cache — shows He’s age as “1994.1.1.” Jere Longman and Juliet Macur, Records Say
Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age, The New York Times, June 27, 2008, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html.
243
See Macur, supra note 240.
244
See Diane Pucin, Chinese Gymnasts are Cleared in Age-Falsification Investigation, Los Angeles Times, October
2, 2008, available at http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/02/sports/spw-gymnasts2.
245
This quote was stated by Chen Xiaomin, a women’s weight-lifting champion in the 2000 Olympics. See French,
supra note 209.
246
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 16-17.
242
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Chunlan, a former national champion weight lifter, stated that athletes are “left uneducated,
unable to have children and destroyed by a system that told us it would take care of us
forever.”247
1. Lack of Education
Even though public officials advance the idea that education is important in sports
schools, the children involved in the schools tell a different story. 248 When asked what her day
entails, Wang Ting, a 15 year old runner, stated, “I run, and I sleep. That’s my day.” 249 Ma
Pengpeng, a provincial rower from Handan City, stated that her sports school “didn’t really care
about books. Their goal was to win gold medals.”250 There is no surprise then when Ma
Pengpeng quit sports she was educationally too far behind her peers to attend regular school.251
Female athletes that devote their time to sport are sacrificing their educational opportunities
because it has been found that sport interferes with the attainment of basic educational needs.252
A 1996 survey found that “more than half of the female athletes in most sports received only
primary school education.”253 Due to this lack of educational guidance, “the longer athletes
remain in a sports team, the fewer chances they have of obtaining ideal non-sports jobs.”254
2. Post-Career Options for Retired Female Athletes
After Zou’s career ended she became backscrubber in a bathhouse because her coach had given her steroids that
produced side effects like facial hair and a deep voice. Juliet Macur, In China’s Medal Factory, Winners Cannot
Quit, The New York Times, June 21, 2008, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/sports/olympics/21athlete.html?_r=1
248
Hannah Beech, China's Sports School: Crazy for Gold, TIME, Jun. 12, 2008, available at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/o0,9171,1813961,00.html
249
See Id.
250
See Macur, supra note 249.
251
See Id.
252
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 19.
253
See Id.
254
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 16.
247
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“According to the China Sports Daily, nearly 80% of China’s 300,000 retired athletes are
struggling with joblessness, injury or poverty.”255 This staggering statistic speaks directly to the
core elements of the elite sports system; early selection and hard training regardless of the cost.
But what does this training prepare the female athletes for after their sports career is over? With
their lack of formal education and years of training in sport, female athletes prefer a career in
sport but it is often not achieved due to the existing inequality in sport careers. 256 The two
common options for retired elite athletes are to become an official or a coach.257 “By the mid1990’s women accounted for only 8.9 percent of department directors and above in the National
Sports Commission.”258 An under-representation of women is also true in coaching.259 A 1994
sample study of three Chinese regions found “women coaches in elite sports teams accounted for
just 14.77 percent in Beijing, about 18.4 percent in Guangdong and 20 percent in Sichuan.”260
The 1996 Olympic Games highlighted China’s female representation dichotomy by having only
“ten female coaches out of a total of 73 coaches but 200 of the 310 athletes in the Chinese
delegation were women.”261 The present dichotomy in China pertaining to sports is that women
are well-represented in the area of athletic performance but terribly under-represented in
coaching and management.262
This reinforces the traditional patriarchal norm of China where
women are seen as a second-class citizen regardless of their achievements or contribution to
China.
255
See Xu, supra note 238.
See Jinxia, supra note 162, at 17.
257
See Hong, supra note 21, at 46-5.
258
See Jinxia, supra note 26, at 213.
259
See Id.
260
See Id.
261
See Id. at 214
262
See Id.
256
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V.
Conclusion
“The official prioritizing of elite women’s sport as the principal thrust of China’s
international sports challenge has less to do with women’s liberation than with national pride
gained in the only clearly visible area where China can take on and beat the world’s most
economically advanced countries.”263
The best stage to further China’s goal of beating
economically superior countries in sport was hosting the 2008 Olympics.
The Olympics
provided China with an opportunity to showcase their beautiful cities, hard-working citizens, and
superior female athletes on a global level while attempting to reinvent their identity as a modern
China. However, after an in-depth look into China’s elite sports system and its use of female
athletes, the concept of a new modern China becomes non-existent. The extensively funded and
governmentally controlled elite sports system creates a modern way for China to implement the
age old patriarchal and militarized lifestyle that women had to endure. In the context of elite
sports, young females from poor families are recruited to join sports schools based on their body
measurements before they know what sports are.
The parents encourage their child’s
participation because sport is one of the few avenues that females from poor backgrounds can
obtain social prestige and monetary rewards. Once in the sports schools, the children are trained
over eight hours a day with a complete neglect for their basic educational needs. If they succeed,
the female athlete and her family will prosper but if she gets injured from the training or fail to
achieve gold, the young females are left without opportunities to succeed in another career. In
sum, the use of female athletes in China to position itself as a global economic and modern
China cannot be realized due to the “lack of effective government action to alter the subordinate
263
See Riordan & Jinxia, supra note 11, at 151.
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position of women in sports administration and coaching, not to mention in politics, education
and science.”264
264
See Id.
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