[Commlist] Research seminar on Chinese E-sports Professional Players

*“An athlete is not an athlete is not athlete”: Digital Identity 
Transformation, Stigma and Mental Wellbeing of E-sports Professional 
Players*

_Research Seminar, Tuesday 13 August, 2pm – 3pm_

Bankfield House, Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, School of Media, 
Communication and Sociology, 132 New Walk, Leicester LE1 7JA


  This event is supported by International Research Development
  Fund,University of Leicester.

Abstract: E-sports (electronic sports) is the term used to describe the 
sport of competitive video game playing. The world of professional 
e-sports has grown rapidly over the last few years and is expected to 
reach nearly US$5 billion in value and a global audience of nearly 600 
million people by 2020. In China, The General Administration of Sport of 
China approved e-sports as the country’s 99th official sport in November 
2003, the booming e-sports culture has facilitated a vast cohort of 
video gaming addicts whose golden aged between 15 to 21 years. These 
young players choose to play professionally over attending universities 
like people their age. However, they face the uncertainty of a career 
after their career peak of 3-4 years. In spite of its increasing 
economic importance, research on e-sports is still in its infancy, and 
relatively little has been written about the mental wellbeing of 
e-sports, in particular through political economic perspectives on 
stigma of professional players. This calls for a need to understand the 
complexity, dynamics and risk of their creative labouring through career 
development in order to improve the management and sustainable 
development of future e-sports talent in fast-developing countries like 
China. The data is drawn from in-depth interviews with players, coaches, 
managers, and commentators working in 15 top eSports clubs in Chinese 
cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Chengdu. Having considered 
the political economy and the relationships between mental wellbeing and 
technology, this study explores the dynamic process of identity 
transformation and mental wellbeing of e-sports professionals in a 
stigmatised society.

Authors:

Dr Yupei Zhao is a “100 Talent Program” Associate Professor in the 
College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University (PRC). 
Her research interests widely include digital culture, political 
communication and popular media. Her research has appeared in 
/International Journal of Communication, Social Science Quarterly, Sage 
Open, Social media + Society, Media International Australia /etc. Email: 
(519254310 /at/ qq.com) <mailto:(519254310 /at/ qq.com)>

Dr Yimei Zhu is a lecturer in School of Media, Communication and 
Sociology, University of Leicester. Yimei has broad research interests 
studying digital media from sociological perspective and is working on a 
number of projects on digital health communication. Yimei also 
collaborates with colleagues from Huazhong University of Science and 
Technology on a number of public health projects funded by National 
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Email: (yz411 /at/ le.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(yz411 /at/ le.ac.uk)>

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