Patriotic Leisure: Internet Games, Esports, and the Discourse of Productivity

Szablewicz, Marcella

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-36111-2_4

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The main stigma associated with eSports is the stereotype of the gaming hobby as ‘spiritual opium’ (Szablewicz, 2020: 51), a term used to condemn the rapid and vigorous development of the gaming industry, which has caused young people to become addicted to playing games rather than attending school. This ‘addiction’ includes those players who either steal money from their families, or lie to their parents and teachers, to skip school to play games.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players

Zhao

Zhu

2020

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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In China, the expanding eSports culture has produced a vast cohort of video-game players whose peak age ranges between 16 and 22 years. This study explores the dynamic identity transformation and mental wellbeing development processes of eSports professionals in a risk-prone society. It comprises in-depth interviews with players, coaches, managers, and commentators working in 15 top eSports clubs in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Chengdu. We find eSports is perceived as non-secure, casual, and irregular by the Chinese public and that the mental changes experienced by eSports professionals throughout their careers have been significantly influenced by a more sophisticated form of state power and social norms, including cultural cognitive beliefs, economic stimulation, and authority attributions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players

Zhao

Zhu

2020

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…E-sports professional players are treated like athletes rather than addicts. They become national heroes when they win prizes in global e-sports contests (Szablewicz, 2020). The Government of the People's Republic of China is a strong advocate for the e-sports and digital economy.…”

Section: Figure 1 Number Of Internet Cafés Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

China and E-sports in the Digital Era

Lin¹,

Khan²

2022

CMUJASR

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The contemporary digital era cannot be conceived of without information and communication technologies permeating all aspects of the community and economy. The production of electronic commodities and e-commerce are the foundations of the digital economy and e-sports form one of its components. China has the most significant e-sports industry in the world, with profits estimated to reach US$385 million in 2021, compared to the rest of the world, where revenue is expected to reach just US$252.5 million. The importance of e-sports to China's digital economy is becoming more evident over time. This article provides details of e-sports in China, from its historical background to the contemporary situation. Keywords: China’s e-sports, China’s revenue, Digital era, E-sports, Sports industry

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“…By joining the capitalist competition process, e-sports players who hoped to wash off their addict identities also got the chance to refl ect upon their social position in the competitive market, which shaped their self-imaginaries in ways different from the amateur gamers. The identity of the ultimate winner in an international e-sports tournament is typically associated with the patriotic ideology of national honor (Szablewicz 2020). Yet receiving prizes at different tournament levels (municipal, provincial, national), which most e-sports players described as their life goal, is no longer viewed as a despicable "counterrevolutionary mindset" (Brownell 1995: 272), as it might have been considered in Maoist China.…”

Section: E-sport: the Cruel Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

E-sports vs. Exams

Rao¹

2022

Social Analysis

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Many Chinese students dislike hyper-competitive public school exams but find competing in e-sports games enjoyable. Some students are perceived to game ‘too much’ by their parents, who, anxious about gaming's impact on their grades, send their children to treatment camps for ‘Internet addiction’. This article documents parents’ and student-gamers’ experiences of competition in China's formal education system, online gaming, and professional e-sports. As student-gamers move between these competitive arenas, they develop counter-hegemonic understandings of what competition does and reconfigure their sense of self. Their movements reveal that, far from a symptom of neoliberal ideology, the prevalence of competition in China marks dialectical interactions between various ideologies and the lived experience of competitive practices. This finding contradicts simplistic conflations of competition and neoliberal economic models.

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Patriotic Leisure: Internet Games, Esports, and the Discourse of Productivity

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players

Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players

China and E-sports in the Digital Era

E-sports vs. Exams

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