Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities and the Game of Weiqi in China by Moskowitz, Marc L

Abstract

Reviewed by: Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities and the Game of Weiqi in China by Moskowitz, Marc L Maggie Greene Moskowitz, Marc L. Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities and the Game of Weiqi in China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. xxii, 184 pp. $70.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper), $29.95 (e-book). Despite the enduring and global popularity of Chinese board games, particularly weiqi (best known in the West by its Japanese name of go) and majiang (mahjong), in-depth studies of the role of games in Chinese society have generally been thin on the ground. Marc L. Moskowitz’s engaging study on contemporary weiqi culture in the People’s Republic of China is therefore a valuable and welcome addition to the literature, and a book that will be of interest to a wide audience, from specialists to more general readers alike. [End Page 80] Moskowitz is primarily interested in how weiqi training and play reflects contemporary conceptions of masculinity (as he explains, the game is largely male-dominated at both the professional and casual levels, though he does have extended interviews with at least one female weiqi player), class, and nationhood. His observations on the game are developed largely from fieldwork spent in several Beijing weiqi schools, participating in play with retirees in Beijing parks and students in the Peking University weiqi club, and interviews with professional players. The book is divided into seven chapters. The first two comprise an introduction to the study at large, the world of weiqi, and the cultural history of weiqi in China. Moskowitz introduces the language of the game, although little background—other than the various categories of rank signifying a player’s skill—is necessary to understand the study that follows. For those familiar with the extant literature on weiqi’s origins and cultural significance, this chapter provides a refresher, and it is useful background for those unfamiliar with the topic. The remaining chapters take up the subject of weiqi, masculinity, and nation more pointedly. One of the tensions Moskowitz explores is the split between wen (refined and cultured) and wu (martial) in speaking of masculinities. As he argues, there are multiple masculinities from which contemporary Chinese men can choose, and many of these choices as well as the contradictions inherent in them can be seen in the world of weiqi. Discussions of masculinity are, as he notes, difficult to detach from nationalist discourses, and one of the most useful parts of his study explores the relationship between China, Japan, and Korea as seen through weiqi. Japan has long been regarded the dominant country in weiqi competition, which Moskowitz argues has “been a particular point of shame for China” (p. 60). In the following chapters, Moskowitz considers three separate environments in which weiqi training and play construct masculinities: in weiqi schools for children, at the Peking University weiqi club, and among retirees in a Beijing park. The chapter on children’s training is one of the most entertaining and enlightening, as Moskowitz analyzes the teachers at one school who evoke a “Confucian ideal” of manhood, the rampant consumerism and corporatization that defines another school, and the anxieties and pressures parents in contemporary China feel regarding raising their children. In discussing university students and the arduous path to becoming a professional weiqi player, Moskowitz engages with the idea of suzhi (“quality”) and its relationship to class—here, one wonders if the author could connect contemporary notions of suzhi with the similar discourse of the 1950s and 1960s, particularly as it involved ideas of the well-rounded socialist citizen. Although Moskowitz notes the incongruity between the Cultural Revolution-era emphasis on ridding China of the “Four Olds” and the fact that many people learned to play weiqi during the Cultural Revolution, more discussion of weiqi’s position in the Maoist or Republican periods would have been useful. Finally, Moskowitz looks at the culture of playing weiqi in parks; here, the relationship between class, education level, and varying conceptions of masculinity that he has developed throughout the rest of the monograph are brought out most strongly. Moskowitz describes styles of play (and reasons for play) that are very different from both those found in child...