Chinese Americans are talking about Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist. The freestyle skier was born in San Fransisco but competed for China in the Winter Olympics.
Who is Eileen Gu?
Eileen Gu is an Olympic gold medalist freestyle skier. People are impressed by her smooth skill of soaring over treacherous slopes without breaking a sweat. And many are also moved by Gu’s ability to navigate uneasy political tensions between the big nations and their contrasting cultures. However, some also believe that she is representing China to benefit from the opportunities that were offered to her. However, Gu’s repeating a statement “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American. But when I’m in China, I’m Chinese,” resonates with several Chinese Americans.
Gu was born to an American father and a Chinese mother. She calls herself a typical Asian American teenager but she experienced a privileged childhood. Raised in an affluent San Fransico neighborhood, Gu attended an elite private school. The athlete spent most of her summer breaks in Beijing. Though it is uncommon, Gu has a green signal for competing with ambiguous citizenship. There is no record of her renouncing her American citizenship. But, it is public information that China does not permit dual citizenship. She has also been successful in tapping into a wide range of sponsorship since the sport is still growing in China.
Friend or foe?
People relate to Gu’s famous statement on duality as comforting and not counterintuitive. However, several people expressed their dismay and called Gu “ungrateful” and a “traitor” on social media. The dissenters are painting her to be ‘not quite an American’ as she chose to represent China in the games. Eileen Gu has repeatedly said that she chose to be a role model to female athletes in China. She is also aiming to increase the profile of skiers in the country. However, the criticisms against the athlete are akin to a personal attack. People expressed their experience and the weight of carrying narrow expectations of how Asian Americans should act, identify or think from others.
“I think what I’m seeing is somebody who isn’t afraid to love her identities and share that with people. I think it’s so brave for her to speak about that on a public platform,” stated Sarah Belle Lin. Lin is a 28-year-old living in Harlem. To Lin and several other Chinese Americans, Gu’s statement is resonating in terms of the duality that they have experienced in their lives. “She was recruited to compete on behalf of China, but she was not recruited to become the spokesperson for China’s toxic patriotism,” said Ming Xia. Xia is a professor of Political Science at the University of New York. With the growing rise in controversy and human rights violations, several like Xia fear that she will become vulnerable.
“I think, if political tensions continue to rise, we will find ourselves in situations. Whether we’re in the States or in China, where people will push us to identify with one over the other,” said Easten Law. Law is a 38-year-old and a resident of Princeton, New Jersey. “For us everyday Chinese Americans, we’re going to have to deal with the same issues. Of claiming versus disassociating and parsing through what to identify with and what not to. I think it’s inevitable,” Moreover, the time has come to understand that identity need not always fall into a binary.
