I really liked how this book was organized. It started out well by giving me a good perception of how gender roles in Asia –particularly China– work. It is interesting to think of how different cultures portray gender differences. The way women are portrayed in China as the emotional caretakers of the household, while it seems old fashioned and sexist, is really not all that different from how women are portrayed in many ways today in the US and Western Europe. While we don’t like to admit it, women are still seen as less logical than men, and overemotional, which is why we still have an 80 percent majority male Congress. The way Weiqi reflects how men and boys in China are supposed to be, logically minded, is really interesting.

Another part of the book I liked was when it talked about how Weiqi is similar to chess, and US/Russia relations during the Cold War. The author states, “Weiqi’s significance in Asia is analogous to the role of chess in Cold War politics between the United States and Russia in that it emphasizes both cultural sharing and aggressive competition.” (P. 30, Kindle Edition.) I thought this analogy was interesting. The way the book described the differences and similarities between chess and Weiqi really helped me better understand those differences in terms of warfare and culture. While chess has pieces that reflect a separation of power and place in warfare, with all of the pieces protecting the King as their main goal to the best of their ability, Weiqi has homogenous stone pieces, none of which are different or have greater power over the rest. It makes me think of how I imagine Chinese warfare compared to European warfare throughout history, larger armies and more homogenous.

Throughout all of the readings we have had the one thing that bothers me is all of the sexism and gendering involved in games. Why do female Weiqi players need 3 extra years to become professional players? Why is it that male players dominate the professional Weiqi world? Similar questions come up in history about gender relations in general, women as the emotional caregivers, and men as the logical breadwinners; however, it seems almost more prevalent in games today. Gendering in game culture exists everywhere from the online world of MMOs to card games, or sports –especially sports. I guess I’ll leave the rest of my feminist rant for discussion.