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Meet Joanne Missingham, Taiwan’s Goddess of Go: Part 1
Joanne Missingham is Taiwan’s top female Go player, with a formidable Go ranking of 7 dan. In her 20s, she took on modeling work, gaining fame in entertainment. What many people don’t know is that Joanne was born in Australia. She has mixed-race heritage, with an Australian father and Taiwanese mother. Her great love affair with Go began at age 6, when her mom gave her a chance introduction to the game. And she hasn’t stopped playing since. Today in our Sunday special report, we kick off a three-part introduction to Taiwan’s Goddess of Go.
Taiwanese-Australian Joanne Missingham was born on May 26, 1994, in Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Her Chinese name is Hei Chia-chia.
Her father is Errol Mark Missingham, an Australian, and her mother was the Taiwanese Hei Nan-ping: a cross-cultural love story.
Their first daughter was Hei Hsuan-hsuan, and little Joanne, their second daughter, was born two years later.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
My mom went to study in Australia, to graduate school. My dad was a professor there. That’s how they met. My sister and I were born in Australia. Later, they decided we would move to Taiwan, mainly because my parents really wanted us to be bilingual.
Hsuan-hsuan Missingham
Sister of Joanne Missingham
My dad would get home from work, and my sister was great at being all cutesy. She would say, “Daddy, you’re home!” and rush straight at him, and push him over to get the cash out of his pocket!
It was a happy family. The Missinghams believed in supporting their daughters’ interests, and so the girls had many hobbies.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
Our parents wanted us to develop wide interests. They took us to lots of classes, we could find our own interests among them.
Joanne studied gymnastics, ballet, and the pipa lute in the Chinese orchestra. Her first experience of a Go lesson was at the age of 6.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I started at 6. Actually, originally I wanted to study Gomoku. But my mom couldn’t find a Gomoku class for me. So she took my sister and me to try a Go class. I got really into it. My sister thought it was really boring, just black and white tiles.
Based in Yonghe, Chou Ko-ping had founded “Dongdong Children’s Go Studio.” He was Joanne’s first Go teacher, and it was he who inspired her talent to blossom.
Chou Ko-ping
Teacher of Joanne Missingham
What was different about Joanne was how focused she was in class, with amazing reactions. She was better at Go than other children right from the very beginning. Perhaps her mind is very clear in that regard.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I saw a very famous anime when I was about 8. It’s called “Hikaru no Go.” Watching it gave me more of an idea of the world of professional Go players. Before that, I knew my teacher was a pro. But I didn’t really know what that meant, or what he actually did. After I’d seen “Hikaru no Go,” I thought, “Wow, you can have a job as cool as playing Go!” “I can just do what I want to do, play Go And someone will pay me for it!”
Joanne’s mother supported her dream. She searched for an advanced teacher, who would help Joanne hone her skills.
Lin Sheng-hsien
Joanne Missingham’s Go teacher
When children play Go, generally they try to capture their opponent’s stones. But Joanne was lucky because her teacher was a professional, a colleague of ours. So her very first teacher taught her to think more about “territory.” So, unlike other children, she wasn’t so fixated on capturing stones. That’s very helpful for later study.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I think what first attracted me was capturing stones. Capturing stones was great fun. Then I realized, capturing stones is just a tiny part of Go. In the end, it’s about who has more territory, i.e. more unoccupied points. Along the way, you need a lot of tactics to gain territory. You have almost unlimited choices. Go has been played for thousands of years.
Joanne was a bright and talented child. Her grades were excellent, and she was popular at school.
Cheng Chao-ching
Joanne Missingham’s third and fourth grade class teacher
Joanne’s schoolwork was excellent. You could see how hard-working she was, how brave she was in expressing her opinions. She was quick-thinking and creative. So her grades were always very good, among the best in the class. She liked to help others, to stand up for justice. All her classmates liked her. She was fun, humorous and sweet. She looked so cute and did so well in school that she was never short of friends. All the other children liked to play with her.
With her mother’s attentive guidance, Joanne excelled in literacy, playing the pipa, Go, calligraphy and art.
Cheng Chao-ching
Joanne Missingham’s third and fourth grade class teacher
In a moment you can see a photo of Joanne’s handwriting, which is beautiful. Her characters are so neat. She worked very hard on her homework. In her essays, you could see lots of little creative flourishes. She was full of imagination. In natural science, we grew silkworms. All the kids were afraid of them. But Joanne seemed to think they were cute, they were so soft and white. In an essay, she wrote how a classmate had eaten one of the baby silkworm’s poos! Apparently, in traditional Chinese medicine, silkworm waste is a medicinal ingredient. So she put that interesting story in her essay.
With her angelic and unusual looks, those big eyes and glossy hair, Joanne became a child star, shooting commercials and music videos, and appearing in many TV variety shows.
But commercial shoots can run into the night. Joanne’s mother thought school came first. When Joanne was 10, her mother encouraged her to join the school swim class, as a way to gain strength for Go. But as soon as she began, Joanne qualified for the first 100, and joined the school team.
Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
She had good flexibility, good coordination and a sense for the water. She performed better in all those areas than the other kids who tried out. So, of course she was chosen for the swim team.
But joining the swim team meant bidding goodbye to her precious long locks!
Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
We don’t want the kids’ swim training to have an impact on their normal schooling. So usually we ask the girls in the team to cut their hair short, if possible. It cuts the time spent changing and drying hair. It lessens the risk of getting sick. We want them to get back to class promptly, and get back to their normal lessons.
Next was a grueling training regime. Joanne got up at 6 a.m. on schooldays. She would swim 3,000 meters at school to build strength, before classes began.
Joanne Missingham
Taiwan Go player
I swam from third to sixth grade. So I got to school before the other kids. I might get up at 6, and get there before the others to swim.
Hsuan-hsuan Missingham
Sister of Joanne Missingham
I think she’s very strong! Because, if I remember right, she trained before class in the morning, and after class in the evening. The pool at Xiulang Elementary didn’t have any heating at first. It was freezing in winter. I think she’s amazing!
Huang Yi-hsi
Joanne Missingham’s elementary swim teacher
Her first strength was tolerating pain, hard work.She had a very strong will. When we did the aerobic stamina training, which is the worst, she could just grit her teeth, and persevere through whatever I set for her. Some kids are easier on themselves and give up. That means they stop and drop out of the team.
The tough swim training was energizing. Joanne’s will and stamina belied her years. That desire to excel applied to Go, as well. By age 11, she had an amateur 6 dan rank, and often went abroad for Go contests.
Chou Chun-hsun
The “Red-faced Go Master”
I met Joanne in 2004 at the World Youth Go Championship. She was on the Taiwan Youth Go team. I was invited to be the tutor for the team at that championship. So from 2004 on, we played a weekly game of Go, and after each game, I helped her analyze it. In 2005 I went with her to Barcelona, Spain, for the World Youth Go Championship.
As Joanne’s Go skills progressed, just before she finished elementary school, her father was sent to the U.S. for a job. The family moved with him, and Joanne was thrown out of her comfort zone. Next week in our Sunday special report, join us as we follow her into an alien Western country and struggles to continue her pursuit of Go.
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2024-06-09
