Mind–body harmonization: women’s sports participation and social transformation in modern China

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the pivotal role of women’s participation in sports in the sociocultural metamorphosis of modern China, shedding light on the intricate dynamics among physical culture, gender norms, and societal transformation. By conducting a critical discourse analysis of publications by female sports activists during the Republican era, this study reveals how the portrayal of the female athlete’s body, as advocated by those authors with the aim of enhancing women’s self-awareness through modern Western practices, remains subtly entangled with masculine dominance through symbolic violence. Female sports educators’ reinterpretation of the “mind–body harmonization” concept integrates social and cultural dimensions that extend beyond the individual’s physical and mental well-being. It illustrates that women’s active engagement in sports catalyzed the localization of modern sports and significantly contributed to the reweaving of China’s sociocultural narrative. This process reshaped perceptions of gendered bodies, challenging established gender norms while unconsciously constructing new forms of masculine dominance in modern China.

Keywords

• Women’s sports
• Masculine domination
• Sporting body
• Embodied practice
• Social transformation
• Mind–body harmonization