In appearance at least, it is a quintessentially ordinary Chinese teenager
that shuffles in through the door at the Chinese Chess Association in Beijing,
feet clad in Nike trainers, colourful scarf draped around her neck and a trendy
purple beret holding back neatly bobbed hair. As her mother looks on, Miss Hou
greets us with a bright but bashful smile and an easy-going "hiya"
showing off the English language skills she's picked up from her travels on
the international chess circuit where she has been playing since the age of
nine.
"We weren't rich, but we weren't poor either," says Wang Qian, Miss
Hou's mother, a 42-year-old nurse, "but you will have heard of China's
one-child policy, and like every other parent we were always thinking of ways
of to improve our child's development. "There was no dream or great plan,
but one day when Yifan was aged five a neighbour's older child taught her how
to play draughts (checkers). After only being taught once, Yifan was winning
easily against the older child, so we decided to pick on board-games to broaden
her thinking. "We took her to a local games club but she always showed
fascination in the Western pieces, the horses and the castles," adds Mrs
Wang, "so we decided that chess was the one for her. But back then it was
only about broadening her mind, and helping her education, we never dreamed
we would come so far."
Hou Yifan dismisses the suggestion that her mother was a "Tigermom"
in the mould of Amy Chua, the Yale Law professor, whose unapologetic paeon to
tough Chinese parenting, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, caused such
furore recently. "My parents always gave me a choice about playing, but
they said that if I wanted to play chess, then I should focus on it completely,"
she says, adding that such attitudes and parental expectations are simply the
norm for Chinese children. The difference is her success.
"I also have my other studies and I still have some time to do other things,
like swimming, listening to music and reading books. I love to read. I recently
just finished Oliver Twist for my English studies which is a great book."
ChessBase articles on Hou Yifan
