Eileen Feng Gu.
Alternatively known as “Snow Princess” Gu Ailang in China, the now 18-year-old athlete debuted before the eyes of the sporting world at age 15 when she clutched the silver medal for Slopestyle at the 2019 FSI Freeski and Snowboarding World Championship in France.
Ever the go-getter, Gu one-upped herself two weeks later in Italy, where she seized the gold medal for the Slopestyle.
Then, in what could only be described as a bold and controversial move, the US-born freeskier declared that she would be representing China instead of the United States of America, months after she stepped into the limelight.
Her Mixed Heritage
Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco, California, United States, on 3 September 2003, to an American father and a Chinese mother by the name of Gu Yan.
Her mother, Gu Yan, had emigrated from China 30 years ago and raised Eileen as a single parent, though the teenager has spent her summers in China ever since she was young.
Additionally, Eileen Gu is fluent in both English and Mandarin, even touting a natural Beijing accent whenever she speaks in front of the Chinese media.
Another fun fact about her is that like most Asian children who are made to master their education in a holistic manner, Eileen Gu plays the piano as well.
Announcement to Represent China
On 7 June 2019, Eileen Gu announced on Instagram that had chosen to represent China for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
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“I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings,” she writes after thanking both the US and China Skiing and Snowboarding Associations for their unwavering belief in her.
Of course, her decision had been shocking for a multitude of reasons.
In the United States, the land of freedom and advocate of human rights, she was scorned for representing the conservative China which had numerous counts of human rights violations.
Fox News even went as far as calling her an “ungrateful child of America… for her to betray, turn her back on the country that raised her, but turned her into a world-class skier with the training and facilities that only the United States of America can provide”.
Similar comments voicing the same narrative can often be found in the comment section of her social media posts, though the athlete hardly ever acknowledges it.
Some have even accused her of betraying her homeland for profit; mostly supported by the fact that Eileen Gu has landed herself in a number of lucrative sponsorships deals ever since her declaration, such that her countenance is a frequent sight in the common streets of Beijing.
Nevertheless, her decision has been made.
Eileen Gu will drape a red flag with yellow stars on her shoulders proudly and sing to its national anthem whenever she attains a gold medal.
China’s Reception of Gu Ailang
Compared to the similarly US-born Chinese ice skater Zhu Yi, who has received much flak and vitriol after her face-first blunder that landed her in the last-place position in the Winter Olympics, Gu Ailang was received by the Chinese citizens with much fanfare.
Her Weibo currently boasts more than two million fans, who ardently cheer her on at every event that she participates in.
But of course, the world can be a cruel place where only those that can bring home the results thrive:
And Gu Ailang hasn’t disappointed China thus far with her marvellous results.
At the X Games Aspen 2021, she won two gold medals at the Halfpipe and Slopestyle, whilst taking the bronze in the Big Air.
During the 2021 FSI Skiing and Snowboarding World Championships, Gu grabbed the same medals for the same three events, further adorning her trophy cases with more shining metals.
It should be noted how phenomenal her achievements are, since freeskiers typically compete in either the Halfpipe or Slopestyle and Big Air.
To perfect a winning routine for a single event is already difficult enough; since Slopestyle and Big Air are the most similar, it’s easier to double up, but attempting to land the same tricks on halfpipe is very different.
Hence, Gu has also claimed the title of being the first woman freeskier for taking two gold medals at the Freeskiing World Championships.
Naturally, the fact that Eileen Gu is a media darling herself with her fluent Mandarin certainly wins her bonus points among the Chinese media, and she certainly never shies away from the cameras when she also ventures into modelling under IMG Models as a side-gig.
The Dual-Citizenship Controversy
Regardless of what thoughts either country have about Eileen Gu, one irrefutable fact is that China has never condoned holders of dual citizenships.
The Chinese government have taken a harsh stance against dual citizenships, where “it’s either you’re naturalised or you’re not”, and they have even encouraged its citizens to report anyone who is holding onto two passports.
In light of Gu’s achievements and the approaching Beijing Winter Olympics, the renouncement of her US Citizenship has become a point of debate on Weibo with the hashtag “Gu Ailang’s Nationality” becoming popular from 2 Feb to 4 Feb, the topic raking up more than hundreds of thousands of views.
The local Chinese media and Eileen Gu’s supporting staff have been very careful about the topic too, never broaching the subject and pushing off interviews with the pretext that Gu was busy with her training.
However, in January, the Olympics committee confirmed Gu’s status as they openly referred to her “dual nationality”.
In addition to that, she also applied for the US Presidential Scholars Program in 2021—which she did not manage to receive but is only available for US Citizens—and she is slated to attend Stanford University after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
It is highly likely that China bent its own rules to allow foreign-born athletes to keep two passports, especially in hopes of increasing its Olympic medal counts.
This notion is echoed by the Chinese officials’ later statements where they purposefully emphasised on Gu Ailiang’s chinese heritage rather than discuss her ties with another country.
For President Xi Jing Ping, he has always been of the belief that “overseas Chinese” still belong to the nation, and he has consistently pledged that he wanted to “unite overseas Chinese” with their relatives in China as part of the “Chinese dream”.
Likewise, Gu echoes the same sentiments. Recently, she told the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times that she has “very very deep roots in China”.
On Her Morals and Stances
Owing to the competitive and differing natures of the countries that Eileen Gu pledges her allegiance to, her online persona and public opinions are frequently under scrutiny.
There are some things she has been vocal about like the anti-Asian racism rhetoric after the series of shootings in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2021, which killed eight people that were mostly from Asian descent.
“I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, I was with my grandma in a Walgreens in San Francisco when this haphazard, haggard man runs in screaming profanities about Asian people and how they were bringing the virus in and how it was super dangerous, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that in my enter life.” Gu spoke out in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post.
Gu always felt that her home-state was supposed to be the most liberal place where she would be sage, but she felt like she was in physical danger at that moment.
Afterwards, Gu immediately grabbed her grandma and ran out with her.
Then, with regards to the coronavirus that first spread from the Wuhan province and the corresponding hatred that Asian-Americans ended up receiving, Gu stated: “It’s an absolutely absurd idea and it really comes from bigotry and a lack of information. Killing more Asian people isn’t going to kill the virus.”
Likewise, she has been very open about her support towards movements like Black Lives Matter and stopping race-fuelled hate crimes happening in America at large.
Gu is a proponent of gender equality too, as exemplified by how she gave her first speech about women in sports and the gender pay-gap, the sex-based educational discrimination, and the misinterpretation of women in media in her seventh grade.
Ergo, Gu was only twelve or thirteen and she was already a social activist.
You go, girl!
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Tightrope of Politics
Eileen Gu might be open about many things, but she steers clear of politics the best she can.
It’s worse for her in the year of 2022, since the United States is leading a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games for the alleged human right abuses happening in China’s western Xinjiang region against the Uyghur Muslims.
Even when it came to her own nationalities, she presents a cultivated image of herself; a balancing act that she must ensure she never slips from.
She creates content in both English and Chinese, posting photographs from Shanghai and California.
She uses the typical humour with her American audiences on Tiktok whilst coming on as guests in language documentaries in the mainland, spreading her exposure as widely and carefully as she can.
Winning Gold in the Olympics Freeski Big Air
Her latest and most dazzling achievement is that the Snow Princess managed to clutch gold after pulling off a double cork 1620 in her final run for the Big Air event on the icy slopes, with the iconic Shougang steel mill acting as her backdrop.
She twirled and spun in midair before landing with lesser grace, but her monumental stunt—which had only ever been successfully pulled off by Tess Ledeaux prior—brought Gu’s tally up to 188.25, thus earning her a 0.75 advantage over the second-place 30-year-old Tess Leadeaux herself.
In her rare feat of jumping from the bronze medal to gold, Eileen Gu effectively made herself the poster child for overseas-born Chinese that are now representing China.
Gu can try to stay away from the geopolitical tensions rising between the countries, a matter that is far too complex for a young teenager to handle, but her circumstances might not necessarily let her.
The acceptance of her dual nationality and the thrust into the spotlight at the Beijing Winter Olympics has only proven China’s ambition to attract foreign talent, even if it’s another kind of Chinese athlete on the world stage that they can lay claim to through blood heritage.
Eileen Gu honestly stands a chance of winning three Olympic Golds for the events that she’s participating in, and I sincerely wish her all the best.
Unlike practiced routines and conventional gravity in free falling, however, attempting to navigate the complexities of her dual identity will come as a far harder task.
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Featured Image: Reuters
