A Politics of the Body—Sport, Masculinity, and Chinese Albertan Men

• Author / Creator

  Sun, Qingyan

• With a focus on the construction of masculinity in relation to confrontational sport, especially ice hockey, this qualitative research explores Chinese Albertan masculinity in day-to-day settings. Data was collected via five in-depth life history interviews. Drawing on leading gender scholar Raewyn Connell’s hegemonic masculinity theory, I first analyze representations of Chinese masculinity in historical contexts in Canada. Not only were the Chinese workers institutionally subjugated, they were also ideologically emasculated. Their resultant location in the economy and the discursive framing of them as sexually deviant worked in tandem to place them in a subordinate position in the gender order. I then examine the ways in which components of hegemonic masculinity are constructed in the data of the current research and the participants’ self-positioning in relation to the conceptualization of this masculinity. Through a two-phased analysis involving thematic analysis and a critical discourse analysis approach, I first attend to the local constructions of masculinity in the data. I then situate these constructions within the broad cultural celebration of physical toughness which finds expression in hockey and critically analyze the participants’ strategies for negotiating their masculinities. The study concludes by outlining a tentative link between Chinese masculinity in historical contexts and in contemporary Alberta, evident in its consistent occupation in lower or subordinate positions in the gender order.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • sport
  • masculinity
  • Alberta
  • Chinese Canadian

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R36W96R4C

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.