Defending the Field: China’s Female Sports Fans Struggle for Inclusion

Zheng Yiwen (郑怡雯)

Faced with harassment in stadiums and online, female fans of soccer and basketball struggle to find a safe space for their hobby

Though staff members were holding up signs urging “civilized” behavior from fans, the atmosphere in the stadium was anything but. On August 9, the highly anticipated “Jing-Jin Derby Match” between the Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Beijing Guoan soccer teams was held again in the Tianjin TEDA Soccer Stadium after 13 long years, and throughout the game, spectators from both sides relentlessly chanted “ shabi ”—a Chinese curse word referring to a part of the female anatomy.

Lost amid a sea of male spectators roaring slurs and flipping their middle fingers at their rivals were the handful of female fans in the stands. In a packed stadium of 28,550 attendees, women appeared to make up around 10 percent of the total crowd. Perhaps accustomed to the vulgarities, they appeared like silent outsiders in the testosterone-fueled stands.

After the game, two female spectators, who identify themselves by their surnames Cai and Yuan, share their experience with TWOC. They have come, not out of their own love for the sport, but to accompany their husbands, both avid fans.

“I don’t usually watch soccer. My husband supports the Tianjin team. I just came to keep him company and maybe soak in the match atmosphere,” says Cai, somewhat shyly.

TWOC’s investigations at the stadium also reveal that most female attendees were accompanying their male partners or their children. Some, without any keen interest in the game, were seen scrolling on their phones as the match played on.

In recent decades, major sports like soccer and basketball have amassed huge followings in China. But fandom is overwhelming male. A study called “Chinese Soccer Fan Behavior,” jointly published in 2022 by the sports news and soccer community app Dongqiudi and consulting group iResearch, reveals that out of the 200 million soccer enthusiasts in China, a staggering 87.3 percent are boys and men.

Basketball, another billion-yuan sports industry in China, doesn’t fare any better in terms of gender balance. In 2021, the Chinese Basketball Association’s (CBA) “Report on the Development of Basketball Sports in China” stated that approximately 125 million people play basketball in the country. But a recent “Tencent NBA 2022-23 Season Fan Study” showed men make up 83 percent of fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the US’s top professional basketball league, in China.

No room for female fans

Although modern soccer is played and enjoyed by men and women around the world, the sport, and its associated culture, remains far from an even playing field. Discrimination is rooted in the history of the “beautiful game.”

The first Men’s World Cup kicked off in 1930, but many European soccer associations imposed bans on women’s soccer until the late 1970s. The world had to wait until 1991 for the first official Women’s World Cup to be held (in China). Even the mere right of women to watch the game has been curbed in certain conservative corners of the world: It was only in 2022, that Iran allowed female spectators to watch domestic league matches in stadiums.

Similarly, audience and sponsors’ interest in women’s sports, like China’s Women’s Super League (the top professional soccer league in the country), is negligible when compared with sports played by men. On August 13, the Beijing Women’s soccer team faced off against the Shaanxi Zhidan team in Beijing’s old, decaying, and near-empty Xiannongtan Stadium. Unlike the hard-to-find tickets for the men’s Super League, which are often sold out or scalped at high prices immediately after they are released, admission to women’s matches is free. But out of a stadium that could accommodate 30,000, just over 1,000 attendees turned up, with perhaps 70 percent of them being men.

“There’s a stereotype that because girls are discouraged from playing soccer from a young age, they don’t understand the sport, and they won’t follow it,” Abby Fu, a sports journalist and the founder of a WeChat public account dedicated to women’s sports, tells TWOC. “This is one reason there are fewer female fans than male ones.”

The dominance of a male perspective in sports coverage is also a barricade against female fans. “Soccer is often called the ‘war of peacetime.’ Teams on the pitch are like armies on a battlefield. Starting lineups are akin to deploying troops in war,” Xu Ye, a professor at Guizhou University’s School of Media, tells TWOC. “The militaristic discourse in sports journalism crafts a predominantly masculine narrative, focusing on strategies and data, alienating potential female fans.”

The gender disparity isn’t just a matter of numbers but influences male fans’ behavior and their treatment of women who watch sports, both online and offline. The sports community’s overarching masculinity is manifest in various forms of exclusion and harassment, impacting female fans’ enjoyment of the sport.

“There’s a stereotype that because girls are discouraged from playing soccer from a young age, they don’t understand the sport, and they won’t follow it.”

In July this year, a video surfaced on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) showing a female spectator, wearing a replica jersey of the men’s Chinese Super League team Shanghai Port F.C., sitting quietly in the stadium’s front rows.

But her presence triggered intense disapproval from male supporters of Beijing Guoan seated in higher stands. Verbal abuse, laden with expletives, was hurled at her. Security guards, in a move that was later questioned by netizens, approached not the harassers but the female fan and advised her to leave. As she left the stadium, she was met with triumphant jeers and laughter from the Guoan supporters, many of whom recorded short videos of this “memorable moment” to share online.

In March, during a CBA match between Beijing and Guangzhou, a female fan supporting the Beijing team was molested by a Guangzhou male supporter twice. She fought back, capturing video evidence against her perpetrator. The local police subsequently detained the man for five days.

Rewind to 2012: Outside the Shanghai Hongkou Soccer Stadium, a group of over 10 male fans of Shanghai Shenhua aggressively pursued and jostled a woman wearing a Beijing Guoan jersey. Some even yelled at her to “strip off [her] jersey.” She was able to escape.

Preview Mode - Subscribe to unlock full content

Beijing’s Snowy Spell in Photos

View a vivid collection of images showcasing the arrival of the first snow in Beijing in 2023

Cold Fashion: How Ancient Chinese Kept Warm in Winter

From paper to straw to fur coats...these are the clothes that people wore to keep warm in ancient China

Haven of Humor: How Chinese Migrants Find Comfort in Comedy

Chinese-language comedy clubs abroad emerge as a haven for migrants to humorously share and find solace in their common experiences of discrimination and personal hardship

Flying Blind: Visually Impaired Tourists Still Face Barriers

Poor accessibility still hinders visually impaired tourists in China, despite the efforts of a few volunteer groups

Crowning Glory: China’s Floral Headdress Tradition

From the women of Xunpu to ancient emperors, the floral hairpin has been a cherished tradition among both men and women for centuries, serving as decorative ornaments and symbols of authority

Beijing’s Snowy Spell in Photos

Cold Fashion: How Ancient Chinese Kept Warm in Winter

Haven of Humor: How Chinese Migrants Find Comfort in Comedy

Flying Blind: Visually Impaired Tourists Still Face Barriers

Crowning Glory: China’s Floral Headdress Tradition

The World of Chinese Magazine

Categories

Social Footprints