China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Feminine warriorsriors
Boxing becomes a wayay of life for more women en
Forget the lipstick, the mascara and that lovely new dress, but do bring those gloves with you — we’re off to the gym for a few rounds of boxing. As white-collar boxing becomes popular in China, women seem to be just as willing as men to dish out jabs, hooks and undercuts — and, of course, to be on the receiving end — as a way of becoming or staying lean and fit.
Unlike the unsanctioned, subterranean brawls between men depicted in the 1999 cult Hollywood film Fight Club, these fights are out in the open for all to see, and indeed for the promoters the more people who see them the better.
One of these promoters is China Sport Promotions (CSP), which stages fights in big mainland cities and in Macao and Taipei.
It was founded in 2012, and the first fight was held in Hyatt on the Bund in Shanghai, drawing 320 spectators who donated more than 80,000 yuan to charity. CSP’s most recent event, Shanghai Fight Night 2015, in December, drew more than 800 spectators.
As the crowds watching these bouts grow, so does the number of boxers, many women among them.
“Between 2,500 and 3,000 women have signed up for boxing classes with us, many in the last two years,” says the company’s founder, Shane Benis, who also runs the Golden Gloves Boxing Gym in the Jingan district of Shanghai.
Half those who use the gym are women, he says, from all walks of life, including office workers, businesswomen and fulltime mothers. Their average age is 29 and about half are Chinese.
“Boxing has become a very popular way for women to get into shape,” Benis says. “Countless celebrities are promoting the sport in the West, and this has directly affected the number of women here willing to give the sport a go.”
Compared with eight or nine years ago the number is “staggering”, he says, and he is confident it will continue to grow.
Numerous places in Shanghai such as Will’s Gym, Tera Wellness Club and TideCaller have started to offer boxing classes. The craze has also spurred Gong Jing, a former women’s boxing champion, to set up Shanghai Princess Women’s Boxing Club, believed to be the first women-only boxing gym in China.
And it is not just women in the likes of Shanghai and Beijing who are donning boxing gloves; they are doing the same in secondtier cities such as Suzhou, which hosted its first white-collar boxing event in November.
Organized by Black Tie Boxing, a new Suzhou-based outfit that was founded by the Croatian boxer Marko Martinovic, this white-collar boxing event attracted eight women, two of whom were Chinese.
“There has been a huge rise in the popularity of white-collar boxing all around Asia in cities like Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong,” says Dalia Fernandez, business development manager of Black Tie Boxing. “In the past few five years white-collar boxing has become a $30 million industry.
“Women are now beginning to discover that boxing is one of the best ways to get into shape, and you can see how committed they are. Women usually don’t miss training sessions, and they really give it their all.”
Boxing is an intensive cardiovascular
“You spend an hour here and you accomplish a lot more compared with going to the gym for two hours but not doing much.”
Hilary Fan, account manager with Empress Communications, a brand management company
activity that is great for losing weight — Golden Gloves Gym reckons members can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour — and is good for conditioning muscles, but in addition to that women are signing up to compete in white-collar fights as a way of testing their mental limits.
Putting those strengths to the test ultimately comes with the decision to step out of the gym and into the ring, where trainees earn their chops as boxers, and where blood may well be spilled.
“Voluntarily fighting requires the ability to overcome the fear of being punched in the face,” Benis says, quickly adding that white-collar boxing is not as dangerous as it may look.
“Common injuries include bleeding noses, sprained wrists and the occasional bruised ribs. But compared with soccer or basketball — list the number of people you know who have torn their ligaments or broken their ankles — the injury rates for boxing pale in comparison.”
Hilary Fan knows this all too well. She gave her opponent a bloodied nose at Shanghai Fight Night in December. Fan, 21, the youngest boxer there, said she had signed up for the event because she felt compelled to test her boundaries and see the world after having led a largely sheltered life.
An account manager with Empress Communications, a brand management company, Fan says she had poor reflexes and a “hopeless” sense of balance, and that her training had helped rectify this and had had imbued her with a greater tenacity.
Determined to excel in her first fight, she took extra boxing classes in addition to the mandatory whitecollar boxing training sessions provided by Golden Gloves Gym. Because of the nature of her work, Fan had to return to her office after training a few times to work into the wee hours.
“It’s a lot of hard work but I love doing this. You spend an hour here and you accomplish a lot more compared with going to the gym for two hours but not doing much,” She says.
Of the women who have taken part in CSP’s white-collar boxing events, Jackie Zhang is one of the most experienced fighters. Zhang, 29, who was born in Gansu province and now lives in Shanghai, is now preparing for the Brawl on the Bund in June, which will be her fourth white-collar fight, by attending regulars boxing and CrossFit training sessions.
For Zhang, who works in marketing, the most alluring thing about white-collar boxing is not the moment she trades blows with an opponent but the preparation, in which she can build close relationships with the trainers and other boxers. Training also provides an important chance for self discovery, she says.
“During training, you must be willing to work hard and get hit. This in turn builds patience and self control. People on the outside always see boxing as being tough, but to be a good fighter you need a big heart.
“This is all about how self-disci- plined you can be, how much commitment you can offer. When you put in the hard work and win something, that feeling is just awesome.”
In Beijing, Samantha Kwok is training hard as she aims to compete in this year’s Brawl on the Wall event in September. The 24-year-old lost her fight last year and is determined to bounce back with a win.
For Kwok, boxing started out as a New Year’s resolution in 2014 to keep fit, and taking part in a whitecollar fight was simply a way of upping the ante. The hardest part of training was having to lose six kilo- grams in five weeks before her fight last year, she says, a task made all the more challenging given her love for food.
Kwok says that apart from being slimmer and fitter, the most important thing she gained from the experience was a sense of discipline and perseverance.
“I’m naturally a very impatient person, so the fact that I had to work toward a long-term goal that took a few months to achieve really tested my mental strength that translates into other areas of life.
“Although it’s still uncommon to hear about Asian women fighting in the ring for fun, I’d like to beat those stereotypes and do it anyway. If it’s something you enjoy doing, why not?”