Vincent Zhou | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Vincent Zhou

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
summarize interview
Vincent started skating due to his high energy as a child, thus parents send him to sports, mainly soccer and skating. he can run around the rink the first time he puts his skates on, which caused lots of trouble for his skating teachers. As Vincent grew older, his family and himself has to make a decision about his career path. His parents let him to choose, and he finally chose figure skating. Once started to chasing his figure skating dream seriously, Vincent has to commute from NoCal where his family lives to SoCal to train, spend 13 hours per week on the road, Mom decided to quit her high salary silicon valley job to support Vincent. And it is not easy and a huge sacrifice for her and their family.
Every day while driving along the highway between NoCal and Socal, watching the landscape passing by.. Vincent always utters "I have a burning desire in my heart to do well"
Vincent suffered from serious knee injury a couple of years ago, he had to experience painful surgery to take out his meniscus... At a very tender age, he was devastated... He once thought he may need to quit figure skating and go back to school,
but every time, when he goes back to SoCal, he can smell in the air the scent of the ice rink, he missed it too much to let it go
And he came back to Skating!
in the end, Vincent said (in very good Chinese), if it is not for the wasted couple of years (confusing about whether quit or not), he will be even better at figure skating.
Vincent still has nagging knee problem, and at the end of this interview, he is actually with his doctor.

Vincent joked, sometimes people talk with him feel like talking with a 30 year old. it maybe true, since he really has experienced lots of up and downs life has to offer despite still a teenage.
 

Arriba627

TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION 🔥
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Country
United-States
^^^Very interesting interview. Thank you for your translation.
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
BTW, I love Vincent FS opening pose, shows his back instead of front, it is unique!
But if you wanna show your back as your opening pose, please do something spectacular about your costume, especially the back design of your costume:biggrin:
Please change your current costume! Still not good enough!
what about a tuxedo or a simple black suit like Christian wore in the movie.:biggrin:
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
was checking Chinese social media weibo.

I think Vincent's popularity is increasing exponentially after this COC in China.

He has attracted LOTS of Chinese girl/young lady fans, due to his teenager Prince Charming appearance.

Vincent seems to have a much deeper tie to China and Chinese culture than other foreign skater with Chinese lineage.

Both of his parents are from Beijing and it was hilarious to see that 17 members of his relative, granny, grandpa, uncle, aunt, cousins, nephews etc. went to the arena to cheer for him, Their homemade banners are really funny and cute :biggrin:

He can communicate with basic Chinese and in presser, he seems did the interview all in Chinese. And during Gala, the COC organizer interview him and he tried to answer in Chinese as well, but seems to be too nervous to speak in public, but he tried his best :p

Vincent landed quad lutz during the quad battle and received the red rose from Wenjing, the settings are very funny, basically all 6 guys are doing quad battle to win the heart of Wenjing. :biggrin:

to be continued...
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Vincent seems really shy during gala finale mixer and banquet.

But he indeed had a lot of fun with everyone, especially with Team USA, and finally got the photo with his Chinese brothers Boyang and Han.

follow Vincent Chinese fan club for photos, videos and livestream of banquet.
https://weibo.com/u/6190792758?profile_ftype=1&is_hot=1#_0
don't know if weibo link works tho.
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Vincent's Chinese name is:
周知方
周 is his family name Zhou

知方 originated from an excerpt from “Confucian Analects” (论语) "可使有勇,且知方也" which means "understand morality"

Chinese fans very often use this poem to describe their impression of Vincent's mannerism during this COC

"谦谦君子 温润如玉" short translation is "prudent prince, genial as jade" "君子" should be person of noble character, but I used prince here for the rhyme :biggrin:

I recall that British eurosport commentary refer Vincent as "diamond" or "raw diamond" to be exact,

On the other hand, Chinese fans would rather use Jade to describe him.

since they feel the unassuming yet courtly character of Vincent maybe more suited to the luster of jade than sparkling diamond.
 

sheetz

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Do the Chinese fans and media try to create a rivalry between Boyang, Nathan, and Vincent?
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Do the Chinese fans and media try to create a rivalry between Boyang, Nathan, and Vincent?

Not at all, Chinese media are extremely welcoming to foreign skaters of Chinese linage that including Vincent, Nathan, Patrick, Karen of this generation.
The media, Chinese figure skating community and Team China treated especially Vincent, Patrick and Karen as their adopted sons and daughter.
Nathan never competed in China, so they are not as familiar.
this maybe surprising but there are absolutely NO rivalry or tension between Boyang, Nathan, and Vincent in media or among fans, they (and fans) only cared about how do them communicate off-ice (do they talk in Chinese?) and wish they can have fun together during the off-time while those skaters visit China.

Nathan was bashed only for the reason I posted in Nathan's fan thread. But it is not from Boyang fans or Chinese figure skating fans.

I would say Chinese figure skating fans are the most generous and welcoming towards every visiting skaters, All those plushes every year from COC is just a small example. Also Chinese skating fan base are quite young too.
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Chinese skating media praised Vincent for his good nature and patience in the presser.
Usually the interviews right after competition are quite short, maybe a few minutes, but Vincent insisted to talk to Chinese media in Chinese as much as he can and answered very questions thoroughly. so that it dragged to 20-30 min long.
Chinese skating media posted a tweet to thank Vincent for his effort.
 

sheetz

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Not at all, Chinese media are extremely welcoming to foreign skaters of Chinese linage that including Vincent, Nathan, Patrick, Karen of this generation.
The media, Chinese figure skating community and Team China treated especially Vincent, Patrick and Karen as their adopted sons and daughter.

I'm glad and hope they can all be invited to skate in many shows in China. I saw the Chinese documentary about Vincent and was sad to hear about his family's financial problems. Nathan is obviously doing fine financially now, and as a lady Karen will probably do ok, too. But I feared Vincent would be in danger of being overshadowed by the other US skaters.
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Dear Vincent, 小芳芳,
Keep calm and keep fighting.
Your fans will always behind you and support you regardless
Because, you are a raw diamond and we know it.

Shake shake, let it loose, let it go,

C u in tomorrow's FS.:biggrin: Love your heartbreaking smile on K&C Thank you!
 

yyyskate

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
I repost from men's FS here. Just my opinion. I felt useless!

I knew Vincent's current ability not just potential deserve to go to the OG, that is why I am sad and felt useless, but Vincent, Team Vincent needs to figure out!

As a Vincent Fan, I wanna tell him slow and steady wins the race as well, I have hinted many times in all occasions/platforms as much as possible.

As a fan, I did all I could....But I am just a FAN.

The decision to go for the crazy quad feast that he obviously cannot handle when all pressure is on at the moment is not made by his Fanclub.

As one fan, all I can do is to give him support when he is down like after yesterday's SP, what else I can do...

My true opinion is tho, if vincent cannot make it to the OG, bar any injury. It really is a strategy disaster from his team. because, he can easily be US men's NO 2 last year as junior.

And as a fan, I know he has put lots of effort not only in his TES as well as PCS, it should be better than last year! And he is better than last year!

If Vincent cannot make it to the OG, it will be a shame/mistake for the whole team.
 
Top