Abstract
The current study is a qualitative investigation on the identity and the personality of female gamblers portrayed in Chinese gambling movies. Eleven Chinese films produced from 2000 to 2017 were selected for this study. A qualitative content analysis was employed to understand the gambling motivation and the identity development of the characters in the movie. The findings indicate that women gamblers often gamble to escape from personal emotional problems. For a majority of these gamblers, their motivation for gambling is to please their partners and to win back a relationship. Further, on the movies produced prior to 2006, the identities of female gamblers are often depicted with a negative overtone. In many instances, they are described as individuals with little education and career development and having personal emotional problems. However, female characters in movies produced after 2008 demonstrate a more positive portrayal of the identities of women gamblers, in terms of career success and personal development. This shift of identity may be due to the fact that, since early 2000s, more women have become successful in their careers in business and the government services in Hong Kong. In many elite occupations such as medical doctors and lawyers, a lot of women are having the equal professional status as men do. Further, gambling, a traditional Chinese social disgrace, especially for women, is now more acceptable in the Chinese community. The current study highlights the important point that women in the Chinese communities are no longer marginalized, socially and psychologically, as housewives only ------ they can be successful business executives, medical doctors, lawyers, politicians and may be the “Goddess of Gamblers” as well.
Author Information
Chi Chuen Chan, University of St. Joseph, Macao
Mona Chung, Upper Iowa University, Hong Kong
Paper Information
Conference: ACP2017
Stream: Linguistics, Language & Psychology/Behavioral Science
This paper is part of the ACP2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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