Chinese-American athletes face discrimination on both sides

By Tiffany Huang

Over the years, I have always viewed the Olympics as one of the most uniting global events in history. Regardless of what might be going on around the world, it’s incredible that so many different countries can come together at one time and have (usually) friendly competition with one another (the only exceptions being war and the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the games). However, while these sporting events are typically well-received, there are occasions where Olympic athletes get a lot of backlash, either from the country they’re representing or the other countries watching. This could be anything from drug scandals to just poor performance during the competitions, or sometimes even both. Specifically at this year’s 2022 Winter Olympics, three Chinese-American athletes were faced with a lot of criticism both from Chinese and American viewers: Nathan Chen, Eileen Gu, and Zhu Yi. Although they all received hate and backlash for different reasons, I strongly believed it was unfair and largely fueled by racism. 

To begin, Nathan Chen is a 22 year old male figure skater from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a three-time World champion, the champion of the 2017 Four Continents, a three-time champion of the Grand Prix Final, a six-time US national champion in figure skating, and in the 2022 Olympic Games, he came out of the competition with gold. In other words, he is a very skilled and successful figure skater who aces his performances with flawless triples and quads. However, when it comes to his figure skating competitions, a lot of viewers like to focus on his costumes instead of his powerful routines, and this was true for this year’s Winter Olympics as well. In competitions, most figure skaters wear costumes with sequin (a shiny, sparkly material), but Chen does not follow that stereotype. Instead, he chooses to wear clothes that are more plain, arguing that the execution of a figure skater’s routine is more important than their costume. As a result, despite the fact that many Americans celebrated his gold medal, he still received a lot of criticism for the way he was dressed. In China, his victory was completely ignored by the media. 

Another Chinese-American athlete who was celebrated for her gold medal was Eileen Gu, who won gold in the freestyle skiing competition, but instead of representing the US, she chose to represent China. Gu is an 18 year old freestyle skier who was born in San Francisco, California. In 2018, she competed for the US in the 2018-19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup, but in 2019, she decided to give up her American citizenship to represent China instead. Thus, in the 2022 Winter Olympics, Gu was a freestyle skier for the Chinese team. Her gold medal victory has earned her a lot of praise from the Chinese media–many viewers going as far as calling her the “nation’s pride.” On the other hand, many American viewers have called Gu ungrateful for not representing her birth country and have even called her a traitor. 

Finally, like Nathan Chen, another Chinese-American figure skater who participated in the 2022 Winter Olympics was Zhu Yi, but her results in the games were completely different from both Chen’s and Gu’s. Although she was born in Los Angeles, California, the 19 year old (similar to Gu) chose to give up her US citizenship to represent China in this year’s Olympic Games. However, instead of being called the “nation’s pride” like Gu is, the Chinese media has greatly criticized Zhu’s participation in the games. This is because she fell in both her short program and free skate program, which caused her to place very low at the end of the games. For many days, Zhu was trending on both Chinese and American social media for her falls on the ice, and viewers from both countries ridiculed her for her decision to give up her US citizenship and represent China instead. Many Chinese viewers have called her a disgrace to the country and even questioned whether or not she was truly patriotic and loyal to the nation. Zhu also received a lot of backlash for representing China despite her inability to speak Mandarin fluently. 

Although it’s understandable for America and China to criticize these three athletes to some degree, I strongly believe they should not have received as much hate and backlash as they got. Specifically in Nathan Chen’s case, I understand that viewers are used to seeing figure skaters in pretty and sparkly costumes, but whether or not they dress up shouldn’t define what type of athlete they are. Chen is an incredibly talented skater, and it’s frustrating to see him receive so much criticism in America simply because of the way he’s dressed. He literally won the US gold in the men’s skating program, yet he was still criticized. 

As for Eileen Gu and Zhu Yi, it’s understandable that American viewers would criticize them for choosing to represent China even though they were both born in America, but I personally believe that that decision was entirely up to them and should remain that way. As a Chinese-American myself, I can imagine how difficult it must’ve been for them to decide whether to represent China or America. Either way, they were going to receive a lot of hate and backlash from one country, so it really just came down to which one they wanted to represent. Words like “traitor” and “ungrateful” should not be used to describe Gu and Yi because, from the very beginning, they were both Chinese and American, and just because they chose to represent one country over the other doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ungrateful for being born and raised in the US. 

I think the most frustrating part about all of this is the fact that Chinese-Americans received so much backlash during this year’s Olympics even though there are literally white Americans on Chinese teams, but they didn’t receive the same criticism from either America or China. I have hardly heard any American call these white athletes “traitors” or “ungrateful” for representing China in the games instead of the US when they, unlike Gu and Yi who are both Chinese-American, have no valid reason for choosing to participate in Chinese teams instead of American teams. Also, none of these white athletes speak Mandarin, so it doesn’t make sense for China to criticize Zhu Yi so much for not being able to speak the language fluently. Thus, I think it’s incredibly clear that a lot of the hate these Chinese-American athletes received in the 2022 Winter Olympics was largely fueled by racism. In America, it was racism against them for being Chinese, and in China, it was racism against them for being American. Nathan Chen, Eileen Gu, and Zhu Yi all worked incredibly hard–just like all the other athletes in the games–to get into the Olympics at all, and for them to receive so much hate and backlash simply because of their race is infuriating. For an event that’s supposed to unite the world together with friendly competition, it’s heartbreaking to see the way viewers often cause more divide between the countries because of their racism.