Will the ‘Iron Roses’ bloom forever? women's football in China: Changes and challenges

Abstract

Since the 1980s football has become one of the fastest-growing female sports in China. Female players have forced their way into this traditional bastion of male identity and prestige with confidence, and in doing so, have projected radical and successful images of femininity. The national team obtained second place at the Third World Cup and won the Asian Cup and the Asian Games ten times. (Note: They are different competitions.) The Chinese proudly call them ‘Iron Roses’. With these successes behind them they were used recently as models to inspire Chinese male footballers to qualify for the World Cup in 2002. Women football players strongly challenge traditional Chinese culture and symbolize the ideal gender relations of post-1949.