I’m having a hard time understanding “body culture”. It feels like there is a bombardment of different terms for different thing about a person’s body. Brownell uses it as meaning, “Body culture reflects the internalization and incorporation of culture. Body culture is embodied culture. (Brownell, pg.11)” It brings to question, what is culture? Everyone has a different theory about what it is. Brownell also states that some scholars believe it to be about how one takes care of their body and presents it to others. Culture could tie into that easily, but it seems too basic of a definition.

Another problem comes after she mentions what “body culture” means in many ways, Brownell continues into describing the multiple words that mean different types of body in Mandarin. She noticed a pattern in the different terms used when she had to do research for this book for English, German, and Mandarin languages. The book thus far has focused on these multiple terms and still keeps focus towards the term “body culture”. Her definition seems to adapt with every page turn, which makes me believe her thesis focuses on defining “body culture” specifically to China and their sports/body.

Interestingly, Brownell points out her experience with the differences in how people of different social groups and nations walk or hold themselves around others. Her story about seeing a group of Europeans walking towards her, but then when the group came into focus, they were Chinese. She based them on their appearance of how they walked towards her (Brownell, pg. 9).

Brownell, as she saw it, made a connection to how, “The classical Chinese tendency was to conceive of the body as a state rather than the state as a body. (Brownell, pg. 45)” Cultures of many types have a view on what the body is for and how it is seen to work. I believe that Chinese see it more of a machine or quite possibly a temple too. It did raise the question of why did they begin to care about their form through sports? Was it due to European influence? Was it more of a focus on creating sanity in a state-like opinion of the body? Was it possibly a mix of both? Brownell does slide around the idea that Europeans brought the intensity of focus to it, but I hope that the book will explore this history aspect and cultural aspect by the end.