Self-Transformation in Go Games: An Autoethnographic Study of a Serious Leisure Pursuit

ABSTRACT

This article combines both analytical and evocative autoethnographic study of Go to illuminate Confucian self-transformation and to contribute to Robert Stebbins's conceptions of serious leisure. As an analytical autoethnographic study, this article interweaves the author's personal experiences of playing Go with theoretical discussions. The author argues that whereas Stebbins's analysis of durable benefits from serious leisure is individualist, Confucian self-transformation encourages a relationalist approach and that the latter approach could be a remedy for the shortcomings of the former one. As for the evocative part of this article, the author uses some devices of fictional writing to tell a lifelike story of an unforgettable Go game. This story invites readers to put themselves in the author's situations, to taste the sweet fruit of the author's serious leisure pursuit, and to reflect on their own leisure experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• analytical autoethnography
• evocative autoethnography
• Confucian self-transformation
• Go games
• serious leisure

Notes

1 For the basic rules of Go, please visit the website of the British Go Association (http://www.britgo.org).

2 A Go player, a serious leisure participant, and a practitioner of Confucian self-transformation can be female or male. For this reason, I use both feminine and masculine pronouns in this article.

3 In English, Confucian self-transformation is also called Confucian self-cultivation, Confucian self-refinement, and Confucian self-improvement. In this article, I use self-transformation only.

4 In Stebbins's (2001) later view, the idea of rewards is a little different from that of benefits. The former refers to participants' motivation for engaging in serious leisure; the latter is the outcomes of participants' serious leisure pursuits. However, he pointed out that “the two ideas constitute two sides of the same social psychological coin” (Stebbins, 2001, p. 13). For the purpose of this article, it is unnecessary to distinguish the two ideas. I treat them as interchangeable.

5 My father and I never know our accurate levels in the grading system for amateurs.