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Description
This study examines the experiences of indigenous sportswomen of the Mulan football team in Taiwan. Mulan football is a famous football team in Taiwan’s sports history for their remarkable record, three times Asian football champion between 1977 and 1981. However, the indigenous female footballers’ experiences are unclear, primarily since the Han ethnicity dominates the discourse of Mulan football history. The name Mulan comes from ancient China and relates to the Xianbei or Han people. As sports sociologists remind us that women are the focus of attention, and another process of exclusion is taking place. Postcolonial feminists criticize that feminists provide strategies to challenge patriarchy by using ‘women’ as a category without differences. This study takes postcolonial feminism theory to analyze Mulan football history, especially recognizing sportswomen with their gender, class, and ethnicity. The research question is, what are indigenous female footballers’ experiences when participating in sports? This research uses semi-structured interviews to collect indigenous footballers’ unique insights. The interviewees were those who had ever joined the national team between 1977 and 1981. The evidence shows that Mulan football history makes indigenous athletes stay periphery. Although most indigenous sportswomen are historically invisible, they experience various difficulties depending on their social positions. For example, only some indigenous footballers had opportunities to enroll in university with their sports talent. At the same time, others did not go to college and worried about their economic condition. To conclude, indigenous female footballers’ experiences are different due to intersecting with gender, class, and ethnicity.
