Joanne Missingham was always a child prodigy. Even her Go master said, “Her talents are wasted as a professional Go player.” He implored her to reconsider. But the magical thing about Go is, in its history of over two thousand years, there’s not been a single identical game. Come to think of it, the same could be said of all human existence. As for how Missingham came to reign as Taiwan’s highest-ranking Go champion, her secret is simple: she never played a game of Go she did not thoroughly enjoy.

Her deep brown eyes remain focused on the Go board. In her head, she’s calculating all the possible next steps. Joanne Missingham is the picture of expressionless calm when she plays Go. But in person, she has the most lively laugh. The persona is almost entirely different.

“You know what they say about Geminis—I’m like two different persons. I can sit still and play Go for eight hours straight. I can also talk your ear off for an entire day.” Missingham enjoys skydiving and bungee jumping. Her favorite books are Wuxia novels. The contrast between Missingham when she’s playing Go and when she’s not playing Go is drastic. 

 

 

 

 

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黑嘉嘉 Joanne Missingham（@jiajia94526）分享的貼文 於 PDT 2019 年 10月 月 6 日 上午 6:22 張貼

Her agent Yang Li-an (楊莉安) chimes in: “Joanne is usually very impatient, she thinks sixty seconds is too long to wait for a red light.”

Japanese media call her the most beautiful professional Go player “of a millenium”. But don’t let her good looks deceive you. She has a professional ranking of 7 dan with the Taiwan Go Association (台灣棋院). That makes her the highest ranking female player in Taiwan. She also won second place in a women’s world tournament.

Missingham became a professional Go player at the tender age of fourteen. She finished middle school, but never went on to high school. Tiger parents are not the secret to her success. She excelled because she thoroughly enjoyed playing Go.

                               

If First You Like It, Try, Try Again

Missingham had a fairly exhilarating childhood. Gymnastics, piano, Chinese lute, ballet and Go; Missingham tried them all. She even joined the swim team in primary school. She was passionate about learning new things, and so her parents told her early in her life: if you like something, go ahead and try it out!

Her father is Australian; her mother, Taiwanese. She has one older sister. When Missingham was four, the family moved back to Taiwan from Australia. Her father’s view on education was very open-minded; he did not care much about grades. “Which is why it fell to him to sign the ‘contact book’ teachers used to report on my behavior and grades,” Missingham says with a smile. 

When she was five, her mother took home a box of gomoku (五子棋). Missingham beat everyone handily. She said she wanted to take lessons. Mrs. Missingham found a Go class in the neighborhood and signed her up.

Missingham was deeply enthralled by the endless variety of Go. “Go has thousands of years of history, but there’s never been two identical games.” She quickly discovered her talent in the game, and beat all the classmates in her class.

Missingham is a big fan of the character “Akira Toya” from the Japanese anime Hikaru no Go. She likes how he set his goal as a child and focused all his energy on Go. (Photo by Chien-Ying Chiu/CW)

Missingham was not only an amazing Go player. Her first teacher Zhou Keping (周可平) says in his twenty years of teaching Go, he’s rarely seen a student with such a winning personality. “Even as a child, she was very composed, unaffected by triumph or defeat. It’s very uncommon.”

The Japanese anime Hikaru no Go was playing on TV at the time. The cartoon inspired Missingham to become a professional Go player. “I had a better understanding of professional Go players after watching the show, I realized I could win prize money by playing,” she remembers.

She was only eight at the time. Her mother was unfamiliar with the world of pro Go players, so she asked Zhou, himself a professional player, for advice. His reply was blunt: Reconsider carefully. 

Missingham was not only a great Go player, she also excelled in school and had a lot of potential. “She was destined to be a star. Becoming a professional Go players would have been a waste,” says Zhou. 

Lots of children watched Hikaru no Go and dreamed of playing Go professionally. But Zhou knew the life was hard. Taiwan did not have the environment for pro players. Out of a hundred players or more, only the top few could make a living by winning prize money.

Burning the Midnight Oil to Play Go Online

When Missingham was eleven, her father changed jobs and the family moved to the United States. She lost her Go teacher and classroom. But losing the environment for learning Go made Missingham even more convinced Go was her “true love”.

In order to sharpen her skills, she played Go on the internet. But the best players were in Asia, several time zones away from the United States. “So on weekends, I would get up in the middle of the night to play. I did not want to lose any chance to play with the best,” she says.

Class was not difficult; school let out at two-thirty every afternoon. Missingham had plenty of time to practice. After two years of playing, her online ranking went from 6 dan to 9; she was clearly going places. Again, she told her mother she dreamed to play professionally.

To help her achieve her dream, her mother signed her up in a professional Chinese ranking competition. Only the top two players would qualify for advancement. But Missingham came in at number twenty.

The next year, she practiced harder and came back for the rematch. “I told myself it was my last test. Luckily, I passed.” Missingham says she succeeded because she had the correct mindset during the contest.

Her parents never pressured her to play. They wanted her to fully enjoy the experience of playing Go. “Before the test, my father told me I had a future whether I passed or not.” She thought if she failed again, she would return to study in the United States.

Not being afraid to lose helped her concentrate entirely on the game. “I saw many girls crying in the washroom. They put all their effort into this competition, it’s as if a game of Go would decide their entire lives.” Missingham confesses that for many children, learning to play Go brought a lot of pain. They were punished if they lost. The trauma would stay with them all their lives.

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No Pressure, Just Enjoy

But she was different. Her parents have always taught her winning or losing didn’t matter. They comforted her in defeat and told her to learn from mistakes so her skills would advance. “I truly enjoyed playing Go. Since my parents did not pressure me, I thought I should not stress myself out.”

Taking it easy allowed Missingham to play fearlessly against world-class players who had more experience than her and a better win-loss ratio. She was not scared because she felt she was taking the chance to learn from professionals.

“Playing Go will always end in a win or a loss. If you take it too seriously, you will be in agony.” Missingham explains that after each game, Go players retrace their steps to understand where they went wrong. This practice is called a “game review” (覆盤). If you cannot let go of your mistakes, the game review will become a source of pain.

At the age of fourteen, Missingham became a professional Go player. Her mother accompanied her back to Taiwan to look after her. Her father and big sister stayed in America. “My mother took care of everything, I never did any chores,” Missingham says smilingly.

Missingham’s mother used to teach primary school. She was diligent and passionate about learning. “I am deeply influenced by her, I try to face life with a serious attitude and always try my best.”

If ever Missingham got depressed about losing a match, her mother would review the game with her. “I would show her each move and explain what happened. It soothed my mood to do so.”

After Missingham became a pro Go player, she and her mother lived together in Taiwan for almost five years. Unfortunately, her mother passed away due to an illness in 2014. It affected Missingham so deeply she almost could not compete that year. “It took me a year to slowly accept what happened. In doing so, I learned to be more independent,” says Missingham.

Becoming a professional meant competing abroad every month. There was no way to stay in school. After discussing with her family, Missingham decided to quit school for good.

Missingham and her sister appeared in ads as children. Now that she’s a celebrity, she’s no stranger to cameras or the lifestyle. (Photo by Chien-Ying Chiu/CW)

Leaving the conventional education system meant Missingham had to plan her own lessons and study on her own time. Because she often competes in Japan, she buys books and watches online videos to learn Japanese. She wants to be able to better communicate with Japanese Go players.

Missingham thinks she’s a Go player who needs to feel inspired. A richer life experience will better stimulate her thought process during a game. She likes to experience new and exciting things. Recently, she went to Dubai to skydive.

Missingham is a charming mix of contradictions. She has a measured demeanor but loves to go on adventures. In 2016, she signed a contract with Seed Music (種子音樂) to begin producing music. She’s officially become a celebrity.

A Richer Life Experience Stimulates Her Thinking When Playing Go

Felix Wu (吳鋒), the CEO of Seed Music, read Missingham’s interview during a plane ride. She has a graceful, otherworldly aura about her; he saw her potential for becoming a star. The life of a celebrity is an unknown challenge, but it’s one which Missingham is glad to accept. “I was worried it will influence my Go competitions, but the record company promised that Go will always come first.”

Seed Music arranged vocal lessons for her. This is very new to Missingham, since her training as a Go player required her to be emotionless and calm, with no sudden shift in emotions. “But a singer needs to project how she feels, it’s very different!” Missingham’s expressions become unusually exaggerated when she speaks of this. She’s been visiting karaokes and singing along with the original vocal tracks to practice her rhythm and range of emotions.

Before a game of Go, Missingham likes to sit in front of the game board and let her mind go blank. Though she chose her mother’s maiden name for her Chinese surname—”Hei” (黑), meaning “black”—she prefers to play the white pieces in Go. The black player moves first, so the white player has the advantage of taking stock of the situation and preparing a counterattack.

Missingham admits she was lucky to grow up in a stress-free environment and find her calling early in life. “The greatest help my parents gave me was letting me bask in the joy of playing Go.”

If she has children in the future, Missingham also wants a happy childhood for them. There’s no need for too much pressure, or obsessing over good grades, or too much comparison with siblings or classmates.

Missingham remembers something from her childhood very clearly. When her older sister went to primary school, she got straight A’s in multiple subjects. Her grandfather told her she should follow her sister’s example. “I told him, my sister is my sister, but I am me!”

In over two thousand years, there’s never been an identical game of Go. Human lives are the same. Missingham’s philosophy of playing Go for the sheer joy of it has allowed her to walk a unique path in life toward excellence and self-fulfillment.

Translated by Jack C.
Edited by Sharon Tseng