Separation or Convergence:A Study on Changes of Gender Participation in Folk Sports——Fieldwork of the Zhuang’s “Drum Playing” and “Shoulder Pole Dancing” in Mashan County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

According to the theory of social gender, the author made field investigations on the change of gender participating in the Zhuang's folk sports “drum playing” and “shoulder pole dancing” in Mashan county of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.Our study found out that these two activities traditionally featured with gender separation, gender convergence is now observed.Women are taking part in “drum playing” which was only played by man conventionally and meanwhile a small number of men are coming to join the female activity of “shoulder pole dancing”.However, the convergence of genders only takes place in public fields where the two folk sports are played as a show of non-material culture heritage or tourism performance.In private domain where they are played conventionally as folk ritual or fitness entertainment, the separation of genders still exists.Therefore, it is believed in this study that the coexistence of gender convergence and separation in different fields lies in the fact that the folk sports culture turns into two parts in its modern transition—one is called “the front stage” culture, and the other is called “the back stage” culture, while “the front stage” culture and “the back stage” culture reflect different functional demands and thus shape different characteristics of gender participation.On the basis of that, this paper makes a comparison with related researches and further puts forward a theoretical explanation to help reasonably understand the current changes of gender participation in folk sports.It also provides some policy implications and thoughts about that explanation.