At only 18, freestyle skier Eileen Gu has experienced the dream life of many athletes and personalities. She is a model for some of the biggest brands globally, she is the freestyle skiing world #1 champ, she is fluent and speaks perfect Mandarin she has won winter olympic Gold for China and she has just crashed the Chinese internet.
But not all is rosy for the talented teenager. Gu has been criticised, attacked and pretty much treated by the Western media as a traitor of sorts, all because she has chosen to represent her motherland China – the country of her mum and the country she would spend 25-30% of her life in. Born in San Francisco, Gu made the switch to represent China in the hopes to encourage a new generation of Chinese to get interested and pick up the sport.
US and other Western media outlets have treated her like she has betrayed someone, and that is extremely contradictory considering nothing is ever said when a Chinese or Asian athlete chooses to move to the US, Australia, other Western countries or European countries as much as when someone from the West chooses to represent China. This is an example of the complete Western brainwash intended to pit China against the rest of the world and that is an extremely dangerous move and fuels the current anti-Asian hate experienced all over the West,
After her massive win, Gu addressed the criticisms of her choosing to represent China and reflected on her career so far. Her win and her personality has crashed Chinese internet with netizens congratulating her ( though Chinese netizens can also be bullied as seen with the Beverly Zhu/ Zhu Yi situation – we will write something else on this!). Here is some of what she said ( via Twitter):
I am not trying to keep anyone happy. I am an 18 year old girl out here living my best life – like I am having a great time. You know, it doesn’t really matter if other people are happy or not, because I feel as though I am doing my best, I am enjoying the entire process, and I am using my voice to create as much positive change as I can for the voices who will listen to me in an area which is relevant and personal to myself.
So I know that I have a good heart and I know that my reasons for making the decisions on what to do are based on a greater common interest , and something that I feel like is for the greater good and so if other people don’t really believe that is where I am coming from, then that just reflects that they do not have the empathy to empathise with a good heart,
perhaps because they don’t share the same kind of morals that I do and I am not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are one uneducated and two probably who will never get to experience the kind of joy, gratitude and just love that I have the great fortune to experience on a daily basis, so yeah, if people don’t believe me or like me, well yeah, that is their loss.
Well said! To win Olympic Gold, Gu scored a 94.5 with a 1620 and perfect landing on her 3rd run!~
Images via Weibo