Gender Discrimination In Go /Sina Sports 2011-08-29

Note: the following is an attempt the translate the original article from Chinese into English. Any errors are the fault of the translator. Corrections are welcome.

Sina Sports Article

男女待遇不公女棋手集体退赛

Female Weiqi Players Withdraw from Tournament in Droves as a Result of Unequal treatment of Male and Female players

黑嘉嘉题扇抗议(图)

Pictured: Joanne Missingham’s Protest Fan

新浪体育讯　

Sina Sports News

8月29日，2011云南台湾围棋交流赛在台湾棋院进行了第三轮和第四轮的比赛，台湾著名美女棋手黑嘉嘉出战。

On 29 August, the third and fourth rounds of the 2011 Yunan-Taiwan Weiqi Tournament were held at the Taiwan Qiyuan, with the famous Taiwanese Weiqi beauty Joanne Missingham participating.

为抗议之前不久发生的千灯杯选拔赛男女棋手待遇不公事件，黑嘉嘉在比赛中使用了自己题写的“抗议性别歧视”的扇子。

In order to protest against the recent unequal treatment between male and female players during the qualifying tournament for the Qiandeng [literally, "Thousand Lanterns"] Cup, Joanne Missingham held a hand written fan saying “Protest Sex Discrimination” during the matches.

8月23日上午，第二届“千灯杯”海峡两岸围棋对抗赛台湾棋手选拔赛开战。

On the morning of 23 August, the qualifying tournament to select the Taiwanese representatives for the second cross-strait Qiandeng Cup started.

男子组比赛正常进行，而女子组的几位参赛棋手却都临时退赛，台湾棋院随即宣布女子选拔赛取消。

Competition in the men's division proceeded normally, but the few players in the women's division all withdrew from the competition at the last minute. In response, the Taiwan Qiyuan cancelled the tournament for the women's division.

原来台湾棋院规定参加这项选拔赛的男棋手有对局费，而女棋手们却没有。

It turned out that the Taiwan Qiyuan established a playing fee for the male players games in this qualifying tournament, but not for the female players.

几位女棋手与台湾棋院协商未果，最终选择了放弃比赛。

Since the talks between the female players and the Taiwan Qiyuan have not been fruitful, the players withdrew from the tournament in the end.

目前台湾棋院共有六位女棋手，分别是：黑嘉嘉五段、张凯馨四段、张正平二段、苏圣芳二段、萧爱霖初段和党希昀初段。

Currently, the Taiwan Qiyuan has a total of six female players: Joanne Missingham 5 dan, Zhang Kaixin 4 dan, Zhang Zhengping 2 dan, Su Shengfang 2 dan, Xiao Ailin 1 dan, and Dang Xiyun 1 dan.

党希昀没有报名参赛，萧爱霖在8月22晚上电话通知棋院取消报名，其余四位棋手则是于8月23日上午开赛前决定退赛。

[Among the six players], Dang Xiyun did not register to compete, Xiao Ailin phoned the Taiwan Qiyuan on the evening of 22 August to cancel her registration, and the remaining four players decided on the morning of 23 August--right before the start of the competition--to withdraw.

台湾棋士会长林圣贤八段回忆当日情况以下内容是林圣贤八段的自述)：

Taiwan Weiqi Players' Association president Lin Shengxian 8 dan recalls the situation on that day (In the following, Lin Shengxian recalls the matter):

8月23日早上，我像往常一样到台湾棋院比赛，遇见黑嘉嘉、张凯馨、张正平、苏圣芳四位棋手。

“On the morning of 23 August, I arrived at the Taiwan Qiyuan to play in matches as usual, and I met the players Joanne Missingham, Zhang Kaixin, Zhang Zhengping and Su Shengfang.”

其中一位棋手问我：“林老师，男棋手比赛有对局费，女棋手没有对局费，您看法怎样？”

“One of them asked me: ‘Master Lin, the male players are receiving game fees while the female players are not. What is your view of this matter?’”

当时我不了解实际情况，愣了一下，回答：“总共对局费1万多元不多，大概是棋院预算考量。”

“At that time, I was not aware of the actual circumstances. I froze for a moment and answered, ‘The total game fee of NT$10,000 [approximately $345 USD] isn't much; it's probably part of the budgetary considerations of the [Taiwan] Qiyuan.’”

又问：“为什么男生去讲就有对局费，女生去讲就没有呢？”实在讲，当时我不知如何回答。

“She continued with the question: ‘But why is it that the guys only had to ask [the Taiwan Qiyuan] to receive game fees, while the girls can't receive game fees even by asking?’ Honestly, at that time I did not know how to respond.”

之后四位棋手走出对局室，我也开始比赛。

“After that, the four players walked out of the playing room, and I started [my] games as well.”

直到比赛完毕，4位棋手也没有回来下千灯杯选拔赛。

“After the completion of [my] match, the four players still did not return to play in the qualifying tournament for the Qiandeng Cup.”

这件事情在台湾棋界引发了不少议论。

This incident lead to quite a few discussions within the Taiwanese Weiqi community.

黑嘉嘉在29日与云南棋手的交流赛中，使用了自己题写的“抗议性别歧视”的扇子。

In the tournament against Yunan players on 29 August, Joanne Missingham used a fan on which she had written “Protest Sex Discrimination”.

Unofficial Reply

In response to the Qiandeng Cup controversy, Chief Secretary of Taiwan Qiyuan Lu Yijing wrote an unofficial explanation in which she defended the organization. A summary of the article is given below.

Lu began the article specifically stating that the opinion expressed is her own and does not represent the official position of the Taiwan Qiyuan. Then, she tried to explain the general policy of the Taiwan Qiyuan regarding game fees to the best of her knowledge:

• Game fees are generally available for the qualifying matches of "formal" international tournaments (正式世界代表選拔賽) when players must meet a prize money requirement (獎金排名限制) to be eligible. Examples of such tournaments include the BC Card Cup and the Fujitsu Cup.

• For most friendly tournaments (交流賽) and international tournaments for new professionals (國際新銳賽), game fees are typically not given. This is because budgeting for these events is difficult when they tend to allow for open entry.

• The Qiandeng Cup is technically a friendly tournament, so the qualifying matches would normally be unpaid by rule. But because the Qiandeng Cup "involves strong opponents" and "comes with large prizes," the Taiwan Qiyuan hoped to represent itself with the strongest players. Hence, the men's division of the qualifiers were limited to the top 8 players in the prize money ranking. For the women's division, because there are only a few female players in the Taiwan Qiyuan, the qualifying matches allowed for open entry and thus made the women ineligible for game fees.

(Lu clarified that the women professionals in the Taiwan Qiyuan would receive game fees for qualifying tournaments where there is a prize money requirement to be eligible, even if all six of them end up participating. In essence, whether game fees are given depends not on the player's gender but on the existence of a prize money eligibility requirement.)

Given this interpretation of the game fee policy, Lu's opinion was that the differential treatment of male and female players in the Qiandeng Cup qualifiers was not intended as gender discrimination against women. Rather, she thought that this result, although disappointing from the viewpoint of the female players and the Weiqi community, was consistent from a procedural standpoint (i.e. simply being consistent with the letter of the official rules regarding game fees).

Lu then argued that there isn't gender discrimination against women in the Taiwan Qiyuan when the eligibility requirements for qualifying tournaments are sometimes relaxed for the female players. In her view, there is only gender discrimination "if the male and female players are treated unequally despite that the eligibility criteria for tournament participation are the same." In the Qiandeng Cup case, for example, Lu feels that the eligibility criteria actually favors the women: all 6 female players were free to participate in the qualifiers, while the men needed to be ranked in the top 8 (out of 50+) in prize money to be eligible.

In closing, Lu encouraged players to participate in tournaments regardless of the amount of prize money. In addition, she called for increased sponsorship as a means to expand the development of professional Go.