Play Like a Girl: How Women Forge New Communities Through Sport
Frisbee, rock-climbing, and other trendy pastimes are seeing growing interest from women, who make their own community in these sports
Muscles ripping with effort, Chen Yu kicks off from the ground. Her body sways alarmingly, but then her foot finds its hold five feet off the ground and she’s off: making her way up and across brightly pebbled walls without a harness, over and over, in a montage set to 1990s Mandopop before hopping off and examining the chalk on her manicure in mock despair. “The hands of the working people!” a friend quips, off-camera.
Chen, a 31-year-old strategic planner in Beijing, is also a sports blogger on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, where she documents her exploits at dancing, working out, and most of all, rock-climbing. She started getting into the sport seriously a year ago after she watched the rock-climbing events in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and felt inspired by Slovenian athlete Janja Garnbret, one of the world’s top female rock-climbers, who won one of the first Olympic gold medals in the sport.
Rock-climbing is one of many new sports that have become popular among young urban Chinese in the past year, as intermittent Covid lockdowns curtailed travel and many indoor entertainment options. According to a survey of 1,216 respondents born between the 1980s and 2000s conducted by 36Kr, a China-based publishing and data company, it is among the year’s top five trendy sports activities, alongside Frisbee, skateboarding, cycling, and home workouts (often led by influencers or celebrities). Many of these trendy sports are also being pursued by women.
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