Asian sporting masculinities in figure skating: media representations of Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu as rivals

Abstract

In sport and sport media, figure skating is often perceived as ‘feminine’ and male skaters frequently occupy an ambiguous position, especially for Asian (American) athletes in a historically White-dominated sport. Based on discourse analysis, this article compares how English- and Japanese-language news narratives represent elite male figure skaters Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu, who are close rivals and skate for the United States and Japan respectively. We demonstrate how English-language media reinforce (U.S.) nationalism by portraying ‘Quad King’ Chen as hypermasculine for his athleticism and ‘Ice Prince’ Hanyu as feminized for his exceptional artistry. Despite being pitted against each other, we argue that in Japanese media narratives, their convivial rivalry and sportsmanship reveal what we call ‘Asian sporting masculinities’, alternative constructions of masculinities complicating monolithic stable understandings of masculinity in or congruous with the West. This study advances critical media and cultural studies by rethinking masculinities in Asian sporting bodies.