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Critical Issues in Sport and Society
Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the Voices of South Asian Canadians
Winner of the NASSS Outstanding Book Award
Hockey and multiculturalism are often noted as defining features of Canadian culture; yet, rarely are we forced to question the relationship and tensions between these two social constructs. This book examines the growing significance of hockey in Canada’s South Asian communities. The Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi broadcast serves as an entry point for a broader consideration of South Asian experiences in hockey culture based on field work and interviews conducted with hockey players, parents, and coaches in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. This book seeks to inject more “color” into hockey’s historically white dominated narratives and representations by returning hockey culture to its multicultural roots. It encourages alternative and multiple narratives about hockey and cultural citizenship by asking which citizens are able to contribute to the webs of meaning that form the nation’s cultural fabric.
Hockey and multiculturalism are often noted as defining features of Canadian culture; yet, rarely are we forced to question the relationship and tensions between these two social constructs. This book examines the growing significance of hockey in Canada’s South Asian communities. The Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi broadcast serves as an entry point for a broader consideration of South Asian experiences in hockey culture based on field work and interviews conducted with hockey players, parents, and coaches in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. This book seeks to inject more “color” into hockey’s historically white dominated narratives and representations by returning hockey culture to its multicultural roots. It encourages alternative and multiple narratives about hockey and cultural citizenship by asking which citizens are able to contribute to the webs of meaning that form the nation’s cultural fabric.
- GenresSports
240 pages, Paperback
Published October 16, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 23, 2021
This exceptional piece of engaged scholarly analysis turns on and unpacks Szto’s statement on p 64 that “Hockey may be common, but it does not denominate use equally”. Drawing on a sophisticated and nuanced blending postcolonial feminism, Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, while for the most part wearing those approaches lightly and effectively, she tears apart the taken for granted notions that 1) hockey is Canada’s game, providing a common reference point for ‘the nation’, and 2) that Canada is a successfully multicultural state. These are potent questions, packed with potential pitfalls, not the least of which is the presentational challenge of weaving together an intersectional analysis of race, class and gender relations into a linear narrative (as required by the standard conventions of academic writing) without rupturing the relations between power dynamics of the intersecting relations.
Szto is a deft writer who manages to keep the active power dynamics in hand, while admitting an emphasis on one or the other at various stages. She does this through several means and crucially she does not conceive of South Asian Canadians as a monolithic bloc with some form of overarching objective state of being. First, the study is explicitly geographically located in the Lower (Western) Mainland incorporating the greater Vancouver area and Fraser Valley. This means she is dealing with a specific South Asian population with definable local relations and identities. Second, the risk of monolithism is further undermined by her refusal to treat South Asian Canadians as a pre-existing minority ethnic group, presenting them instead as the subjects of processes of racialisation and gendering. This means that whiteness and settler colonial relations are not treated as givens but as constructed forces of power. Third, she does not treat relations of participation as given but as constantly dynamic and contested, while also recognising that in many cases South Asian Canadian hockey players are lone figures.
The argument draws on three sources of evidence. The first strand build on the re-mediation of hockey through the persistence and popularity of Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi (HNICP), a Punjabi language version of the ubiquitous and iconic show that, most importantly, is not simply a translation of what happens in the English language broadcast, but a show targeting Punjabi speakers. The second strand is her observational work visiting a number of hockey settings and events in the region. The third is a series of interviews with NHICP cast, South Asian players and parents. From this base with her theoretical frames she then builds a sense of hockey as an integral part of Canadian Whiteness, where policing of the space of hockey and access to it also polices membership of the nation.
Drawing on her elegant analytical frame she is then able to explore the extent to which this policing and its associated exclusionary practices are both recognised by South Asian Canadians and minimised or moderated as ‘part of the game’ or to be ‘played through’. The power of the intersectional approach means that dynamics of exclusion, resistance and mitigation are also experienced and encountered in gendered and generational ways. All of this comes together in a nuanced and sharp critical assessment of forms of capital – economic, social and cultural – as sites and tensions of identity making and mitigation. She draws all this together to a three stranded case that critiques discourses of resilience as undermining exclusionary practices linked to economic, social and cultural capital as external forces able to be overcome by a form of internally personally produced capital – resilience. Second, she sees in dominant discourses of race a form of white fragility based in a failure to recognise whiteness as hegemonic practice met problematically by the emergence of South Asian Canadian hockey leagues, partly in response to a lack of progression into elite forms of the game. In the third, she highlights the memorialising of hockey in Halls of Fame as perpetuating the myth of nation marking while maintaining the games white masculinity. This is a crude summation of a much more nuanced and sophisticated argument.
In both content and form Szto has given us an analysis that challenges both the claims made for hockey and for Canadian multiculturalism, as well as challenging scholars to be build much more nuanced and sophisticated arguments and analyses. South Asian Canadians occupy a complex place in a Canadian social order and are often excluded from the major hierarchies of power while also extending the distance between the settler state and dispossessed Indigenous peoples. Here we see the complex dynamics that both include and exclude this racialised group in the major markers of Canadianness. It provides a powerful model for unpacking the multifaceted claims of sport in and of nationhood, and as such deserves close study by all of us whose work takes us into that realm. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Szto is a deft writer who manages to keep the active power dynamics in hand, while admitting an emphasis on one or the other at various stages. She does this through several means and crucially she does not conceive of South Asian Canadians as a monolithic bloc with some form of overarching objective state of being. First, the study is explicitly geographically located in the Lower (Western) Mainland incorporating the greater Vancouver area and Fraser Valley. This means she is dealing with a specific South Asian population with definable local relations and identities. Second, the risk of monolithism is further undermined by her refusal to treat South Asian Canadians as a pre-existing minority ethnic group, presenting them instead as the subjects of processes of racialisation and gendering. This means that whiteness and settler colonial relations are not treated as givens but as constructed forces of power. Third, she does not treat relations of participation as given but as constantly dynamic and contested, while also recognising that in many cases South Asian Canadian hockey players are lone figures.
The argument draws on three sources of evidence. The first strand build on the re-mediation of hockey through the persistence and popularity of Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi (HNICP), a Punjabi language version of the ubiquitous and iconic show that, most importantly, is not simply a translation of what happens in the English language broadcast, but a show targeting Punjabi speakers. The second strand is her observational work visiting a number of hockey settings and events in the region. The third is a series of interviews with NHICP cast, South Asian players and parents. From this base with her theoretical frames she then builds a sense of hockey as an integral part of Canadian Whiteness, where policing of the space of hockey and access to it also polices membership of the nation.
Drawing on her elegant analytical frame she is then able to explore the extent to which this policing and its associated exclusionary practices are both recognised by South Asian Canadians and minimised or moderated as ‘part of the game’ or to be ‘played through’. The power of the intersectional approach means that dynamics of exclusion, resistance and mitigation are also experienced and encountered in gendered and generational ways. All of this comes together in a nuanced and sharp critical assessment of forms of capital – economic, social and cultural – as sites and tensions of identity making and mitigation. She draws all this together to a three stranded case that critiques discourses of resilience as undermining exclusionary practices linked to economic, social and cultural capital as external forces able to be overcome by a form of internally personally produced capital – resilience. Second, she sees in dominant discourses of race a form of white fragility based in a failure to recognise whiteness as hegemonic practice met problematically by the emergence of South Asian Canadian hockey leagues, partly in response to a lack of progression into elite forms of the game. In the third, she highlights the memorialising of hockey in Halls of Fame as perpetuating the myth of nation marking while maintaining the games white masculinity. This is a crude summation of a much more nuanced and sophisticated argument.
In both content and form Szto has given us an analysis that challenges both the claims made for hockey and for Canadian multiculturalism, as well as challenging scholars to be build much more nuanced and sophisticated arguments and analyses. South Asian Canadians occupy a complex place in a Canadian social order and are often excluded from the major hierarchies of power while also extending the distance between the settler state and dispossessed Indigenous peoples. Here we see the complex dynamics that both include and exclude this racialised group in the major markers of Canadianness. It provides a powerful model for unpacking the multifaceted claims of sport in and of nationhood, and as such deserves close study by all of us whose work takes us into that realm. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
July 19, 2021
If you’re American rather than Canadian, or, say, follow baseball rather than hockey, you might wonder whether this book is for you. The subtitle may seem to characterize it as esoteric or specialized. It is certainly particular, in that Dr. Szto takes care to be true to the experiences of individual South Asian hockey players/participants in Canada. But the lessons in Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the Voices of South Asian Canadians can be applied in other settings. There’s a lot to learn here, not only about sport and other group activities, but also about the nature of liberal democracies in the present moment.
In Changing on the Fly, Dr. Courtney Szto, herself an accomplished Chinese Canadian hockey player and scholar, conducted interviews with 26 South Asian Canadian hockey players, coaches, and parents about their experiences in various levels of Canadian hockey. What, Dr. Szto wanted to know, did the experiences of her study’s participants indicate about frequently made claims that hockey provides a warm and welcoming path to Canadian cultural citizenship?
Dr. Szto analyzes these experiences and their retelling by participants through academic theories that seek to uncover inequities and biases, making them visible and identifiable. But although the book is academic in tone, Dr. Szto also brings her own personal experiences to bear on the topic, which, along with the narratives of her participants, ground the narrative in a more concrete reality.
Dr. Szto also interviewed the celebrated Canadian Hockey Night Punjabi broadcasters, and she highlights their insights on hockey’s meaning for the Punjabi immigrant community. This raises the important idea of co-authored cultural citizenship. That is, “assimilation” should be a two-way (at least) street, with all cultural communities bearing responsibility for understanding, tolerance, and flexibility.
In the case of Canadian hockey, this aspiration must expand to the official story of hockey as told, for example, by the Hockey Hall of Fame, which, more than two decades into the 21st century, persists in erasing the many contributions to the sport by Indigenous people, people of color, and, of course, women. (Not to mention gender diverse individuals.) The NHL says that “hockey is for everyone”—an important part of making it so is showing that it has been so.
Finally, Dr. Szto makes an interesting point about the role of evidence in stimulating change. Evidence of systemic problems is ample, she says, yet always the powers-that-be want more. When is it enough? When will they be moved to action? Is gathering evidence a waste of time? How do we weigh the relative importance of evidence vs. action?
In its careful listening, amplification, and analysis of South Asian voices, this book represents both evidence and action. Read it and be inspired! As Dr. Szto writes, “amplifying voices is not the end goal, but the starting point of our work.”
In Changing on the Fly, Dr. Courtney Szto, herself an accomplished Chinese Canadian hockey player and scholar, conducted interviews with 26 South Asian Canadian hockey players, coaches, and parents about their experiences in various levels of Canadian hockey. What, Dr. Szto wanted to know, did the experiences of her study’s participants indicate about frequently made claims that hockey provides a warm and welcoming path to Canadian cultural citizenship?
Dr. Szto analyzes these experiences and their retelling by participants through academic theories that seek to uncover inequities and biases, making them visible and identifiable. But although the book is academic in tone, Dr. Szto also brings her own personal experiences to bear on the topic, which, along with the narratives of her participants, ground the narrative in a more concrete reality.
Dr. Szto also interviewed the celebrated Canadian Hockey Night Punjabi broadcasters, and she highlights their insights on hockey’s meaning for the Punjabi immigrant community. This raises the important idea of co-authored cultural citizenship. That is, “assimilation” should be a two-way (at least) street, with all cultural communities bearing responsibility for understanding, tolerance, and flexibility.
In the case of Canadian hockey, this aspiration must expand to the official story of hockey as told, for example, by the Hockey Hall of Fame, which, more than two decades into the 21st century, persists in erasing the many contributions to the sport by Indigenous people, people of color, and, of course, women. (Not to mention gender diverse individuals.) The NHL says that “hockey is for everyone”—an important part of making it so is showing that it has been so.
Finally, Dr. Szto makes an interesting point about the role of evidence in stimulating change. Evidence of systemic problems is ample, she says, yet always the powers-that-be want more. When is it enough? When will they be moved to action? Is gathering evidence a waste of time? How do we weigh the relative importance of evidence vs. action?
In its careful listening, amplification, and analysis of South Asian voices, this book represents both evidence and action. Read it and be inspired! As Dr. Szto writes, “amplifying voices is not the end goal, but the starting point of our work.”
July 4, 2021
This is not light reading material as it is best described as a summarization of the authour's research written in an academic style. Regardless it is still a very readable book and even if you don't agree with all the authour's conclusions the reasoning behind those conclusions is laid out clearly. The annecdotes from the interviewees help to humanize the work and add a face to the studies the author cites. It is a lot of negative material to digest but at the beginning of the book the authour makes it very clear that it is possible to love a thing but also to want to make it better. That intention is the overarching theme. As the book also makes clear there is much work to be done but for those of us like myself who love the game of hockey this book is a great place to start.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews