Reading Yani Tseng: Articulating Golf, Taiwanese Nationalism, and Gender Politics in Twenty-First-Century Taiwan

Abstract

Media narratives reveal a variety of perspectives on Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng in Taiwan during her dominant years, roughly from early 2008 to the end of 2013. Tseng, a former top-ranked woman golfer who competed in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), was celebrated as a heroic figure of the Taiwanese nation. Yet, her gender, sexuality, and physical prowess was also questioned and scrutinized because of her transgressive presence as a strong woman athlete. Through critically analyzing media narratives and contextualizing them with both Taiwan’s political history and golf history, this research illustrates the complex intersection of Taiwanese nationalism, transnational capital, US cultural hegemony, and identity politics in the era of global capitalism.