KINE 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 21: Racialization, Pacific Mall, Model Minority
4 Jul 2018
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Playing in Chinatown: A Critical Discussion of the Nation/Sport/Citizen Triad (Race and
Racism: Successes and Failures of Multiculturalism) by Yuka Nakamura
The focus of this chapter is the connection between the NACIVT, Chinatown, and
citizenship
The author identified various data collection sites including the tournaments, the
awards ceremony, the fundraising events, the social activities, and tournament websites
and booklets
In addition, the author held 31 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with current and
retired participants; and carried out textual analysis of tournament-related texts
(program booklets and tournament website
Data were analyzed to interpret meaning and to demonstrate the complexity of the
NACIVT through open coding
oConnections, themes, and patterns were identified in the data were organized
into categories, which were later on further analyzed to look for a logical
sequence
The data and subsequent analysis illustrate that Chinatown itself has multiple meaning
and is used in different ways for varying purposes
Introduction
The North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament (NACIVT) is an annual
event that has occurred on Labor Day weekend since the 1930s
oThough attempts have been made to establish teams in Vancouver, nether the
fame nor the tournament has taken root despite the city’s large Chinese
population
Due to the close quarters, balls from other matches or players warming up enter the
court frequently, temporarily stopping play
oLimited space means that fans have to play close attention in order to deflect,
retrieve and return balls, as well as to avoid players who come running out of
bounds in an attempt to save the ball, inevitably crashing to the distracted
observer
There are a number of unique elements of the NACIVT:
oThe NACIVT is known for nine-man volleyball, which is played in the men’s
division while women play the normal volleyball with six people in each team
This indicates that more men participate in NACIVT than women
oThe nets are lower and the court is also larger than the dimensions outlined by
the International Volleyball Federation
oThe tournament has historically been held in the streets or a parking lot in an
urban Chinatown
For the participants of the NACIVT, Chinatown is home to an authentic Chineseness, not
a replacement for an unknown homeland and a place to play the sport they love
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oIt is especially important that a sporting event allows people to show they
appreciation/perspectives towards Chinatown, because Asian bodies are
frequently constructed as incapable of sport (too weak)
By playing sport in public, in Chinatown, NACIVT participants destabilize racialized
understanding of the nation/sport/citizen triad and the question of who may claim
citizenship in Canada
Social Construction of Chinatown and White Settler Society
Spadina and Dundas are linked to Chinatown in Canada
Although the author takes the position that Chinatown is socially constructed, it is
important to recognize that it also refers to an actual place (even while its location and
boundaries may change), with Chinese signage, services that cater to Chinese people,
and architectural features that reference Chinese culture and art, a place that has been
and is home to many Chinese people
oIt is also a place associated with dynamic, diverse, and contradictory images,
stereotypes, meanings, and associations
Common explanations for how Chinatowns was formed are:
oin response to discrimination that Chinese people faced in Canada and the US
othe result of social organization of migrants
oa launching pad for assimilation
oa traditional Chinese practice
oa product of racial segregation
Anderson (1987) identifies an important weakness in these explanations and that is the
assumption there is a real Chineseness that is the driving force for the formation of
Chinatowns
oHe argues that “Chinatown is a social construction with a cultural history and
tradition of imagery and institutional practices
oChinatown is not a reflection of some essential Chinese culture but the result of
an active process of racial classification
Anderson uses the example of Chinatown during the late 19th, early 20th century to
argue how the space where the Chinese people settled was target by European society
through their way of thinking, resulting In a boundary between ‘their’ territory and ‘our’
territory
The state (government) was directly involved in legitimizing these fake boundaries by
racializing Chinese people as unsanitary, dirty, immoral and hence legitimizing the
creation of Chinatown
oEx: during an outbreak of Cholera, houses along the main street of Chinatown
were target based on the view that residents along this street would naturally
not follow sanitary practices
oThe outbreak of cholera in the Chinese community was not explained by the
poor living conditions that they had, which was caused by racism, but on the
assumption that because they were Chinese, they were dirty
The second key perception of Chinatown was that Chinese people are immoral
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Playing in chinatown: a critical discussion of the nation/sport/citizen triad (race and. Racism: successes and failures of multiculturalism) by yuka nakamura. The focus of this chapter is the connection between the nacivt, chinatown, and citizenship. The author identified various data collection sites including the tournaments, the awards ceremony, the fundraising events, the social activities, and tournament websites and booklets. In addition, the author held 31 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with current and retired participants; and carried out textual analysis of tournament-related texts (program booklets and tournament website. Data were analyzed to interpret meaning and to demonstrate the complexity of the. Nacivt through open coding: connections, themes, and patterns were identified in the data were organized into categories, which were later on further analyzed to look for a logical sequence. The data and subsequent analysis illustrate that chinatown itself has multiple meaning and is used in different ways for varying purposes.
