2019-20 Team China | Page 14 | Golden Skate

2019-20 Team China

yqs100

On the Ice
Joined
May 21, 2009
Wow, Yu Xiaoyu is on the website of the Ice Partner Search.

https://www.icepartnersearch.com/showbio.php?i=6729

Will Yu/Zhang get split or Yu change the nationality?

i believe there was some communication gap between zhang and yu.

zhang is still recovering from serious injuries, and couldn't train for the most important domestic competition, which was supposed to be in Feb.

yu maybe disappointed and just posted the partner search ad without communicating with zhang.

with the corona virus situation in china, the competition is postponed to the year end, hope yu/zhang can recover physically & mentally and back on ice together again soon.

honestly, with yu's height, its quite difficult to get a suitable partner in china, unless she can represent other country. anyway, good luck to the skaters, hope can see them all again soon.
 

hippomoomin

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Based on what I saw, I don't think Yi Zhu is a good choice for the Chinese team. She has not been doing so well and I noticed her jumps are really low, to say the least. Not sure how much Brian can do about that. The other Chinese lady, Hongyi Chen has much better overall quality in her skating. She may benefit more if trained by a powerhouse coach.
 

Nirti

Medalist
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
And what about Ashley Lin? She was supposed to be eligible for 4CC or Worlds... But her name didn't appeared on any lists.

And Emily Zhang?
And the ten other international skaters supposed to join the Chinese team for the Olympics? :scratch2:
 

hippomoomin

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
I am not aware that so many potential switches, but my guess is they are not good enough to represent the Chinese team. About two years ago, Yi Zhu looked most promising but right now I am don't think she is guaranteed to represent the Chinese team. I doubt she has relinquished her US citizenship either.

And what about Ashley Lin? She was supposed to be eligible for 4CC or Worlds... But her name didn't appeared on any lists.

And Emily Zhang?
And the ten other international skaters supposed to join the Chinese team for the Olympics? :scratch2:
 

elliana

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 31, 2019
Rewatching 2019 Worlds and I really enjoy Hongyi Chen's skating. She has an elegant yet powerful persona. Hope to see good things from her in the future.
 

TeamGubanova

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
And what about Ashley Lin? She was supposed to be eligible for 4CC or Worlds... But her name didn't appeared on any lists.

And Emily Zhang?
And the ten other international skaters supposed to join the Chinese team for the Olympics? :scratch2:

Emily Zhang skated for the USA at the 2020 Mentor Torun Cup in January she can't skate for China until next year and she cant even be ready for 4CC
 

Ice Dance

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
And Emily Zhang?
And the ten other international skaters supposed to join the Chinese team for the Olympics? :scratch2:

I think Emily decided against competing for China? Though I might be wrong as it is always confusing trying to sort out which posts are about which Emily Zhang. There are two American ladies with the same name, and I have only seen one of them.

I think perhaps you are exaggerating the number and overestimating how competitive some of these international athletes are? I do not know what is going on with Ashley Lin. That is a good question. It has been nice to see Zhu getting the chance to compete this season. She was in a difficult place at home coming up behind Alysa, Ting, Hanna, & Pooja. Competing at Junior Worlds and COC was a great opportunity for Zhu. And I'm sure China can afford to have a little depth in their ladies field. It is nice to see more than one Chinese lady getting the opportunity to compete.

Chelsea Liu reportedly split from her partner so I do not know if she is looking for a new one in China or not. Karpushov and his dance partner did OK this season. They earned their World minimum scores and finished 6th at Nationals. This Olympics do not seem likely for them, though perhaps in the future? There was at least one, perhaps two, other largely unknown international dance teams that competed this past summer for China. At least one of those teams is no longer together, though I think neither attended Nationals. And there was one young lady--I want to say a novice?--that was announced to be competing for China this year. I cannot remember her name but if she was novice this season, then she will not be age eligible for the Olympics.

Those are all the international athletes I can think of who have switched to competing for the Chinese Skating Federation this season. I am sorry I cannot remember all of the names. I would think that if there is news about Lin, we will hear about it, as she was the most competitive from the season before last season.
 

Nirti

Medalist
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
I think perhaps you are exaggerating the number and overestimating how competitive some of these international athletes are?

I only report what Chinese Fed said some months ago ;)
They talked about 10 or 12 skaters from North America (and Europe?) who wanted to compete for China... without naming anybody. It seems more that they were in discussion with these skaters, but didn't achieve to convince them. And with the way Chinese Fed treats its own athletes, I can understand than foreign skaters don't jostle to join it...
 

icybear

Medalist
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Also what happened to those 2 boys China sent to Rafael Arutyunyan. Considering they were based in America, shouldnt they have been able to go to Junior Worlds without the virus hassle. Honestly its been 2 years and not much productivity has come out of spending that coaching money
 

Ice Dance

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Well, as I mentioned, there have been some that did try. But the best athletes from China aren't that far down the spectrum. Athletes with the potential to reach the top in their own country aren't likely to want to switch federations. And the athletes that are farther down may try competing there and realize that they aren't any more competitive than the top Chinese athletes, in which case--I suspect--some decide that the attempt is not going to work out for them personally. (I think the complaining that China wuzrobbing other countries was always overblown. If athletes like Zhu do climb the pipeline, they will likely do it because China gave them more international experience than they would have gotten at home. Similar to Paganini). One of the challenges in competing for the Chinese Federation, though, is that they don't always send athletes out unless said athletes are at the very top.
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
i believe there was some communication gap between zhang and yu.

zhang is still recovering from serious injuries, and couldn't train for the most important domestic competition, which was supposed to be in Feb.

yu maybe disappointed and just posted the partner search ad without communicating with zhang.

with the corona virus situation in china, the competition is postponed to the year end, hope yu/zhang can recover physically & mentally and back on ice together again soon.

honestly, with yu's height, its quite difficult to get a suitable partner in china, unless she can represent other country. anyway, good luck to the skaters, hope can see them all again soon.

Are there any updates regarding Xiaoyu?
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
I wish there were...I would love to see her again. With whatever partner. she's one of those pair girls who are great to watch whomever they're skating with.
 

Lunalovesskating

Moonbear power 🐻
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 3, 2018
A new article with Nini's (Xiangyi An's) mother came out and I am in absolute shock.
A reddit user translated some of the parts but only around 1/10 (as the article is extremly long) the rest can be put into Google translate.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkat...vealing_interview_with_an_xiangyis_mother_in/

Here the original article
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LzQq035W35eOO3qLFwJRAg

According to the article Nini's mother controls Nini's whole life. Several mentions of physical as well as emotional abuse. Nini has never gone to school. She has no education, because she has to train all day. Nini is also not allowed to have friends.
One time Nini's mother forced Nini to jump a 3Lz+3T 300 times in a row until Nini's leg was injured and they had to go to a doctor. Nini is constantly injured due to overtraining... the article and all the horrible things in it are so long and extensive that I cannot even list them all here. I am in absolute shock..
Read it for yourself.
The article came out a week ago and has shocked the whole figure skating fandom in China.
 

Flying Feijoa

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Country
New-Zealand
A new article with Nini's (Xiangyi An's) mother came out and I am in absolute shock.
A reddit user translated some of the parts but only around 1/10 (as the article is extremly long) the rest can be put into Google translate.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkat...vealing_interview_with_an_xiangyis_mother_in/

Here the original article
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LzQq035W35eOO3qLFwJRAg

According to the article Nini's mother controls Nini's whole life. Several mentions of physical as well as emotional abuse. Nini has never gone to school. She has no education, because she has to train all day. Nini is also not allowed to have friends.
One time Nini's mother forced Nini to jump a 3Lz+3T 300 times in a row until Nini's leg was injured and they had to go to a doctor. Nini is constantly injured due to overtraining... the article and all the horrible things in it are so long and extensive that I cannot even list them all here. I am in absolute shock..
Read it for yourself.
The article came out a week ago and has shocked the whole figure skating fandom in China.

How reliable is this article? It would be unacceptable if it were true, but my issue is that the level of abuse is almost ridiculous in its severity (like the sort of slanderous charges that are usually dismissed in court). Zhang Aijun's purported parenting style would be unlikely to produce a skater with the apparent success that we see from her daughter (at least for now). Also, if Xiangyi is part of the national team (whose training system is backed by sports science and have been reliable at least in producing consistent pairs), wouldn't they prevent her mum from interfering in training with unproductive/unscientific methods (e.g. unnecessary stress-fracture-inducing jump repetition)? Does anybody know of official records of Xiangyi missing competitions or parts of seasons due to injury, so we can corroborate?

My general impression of Weixin/Weibo is that a lot of sensational tabloid-style articles are common - there seems to be a lot of content designed to generate incredulity and outrage (and thus views). Given also that tiger mumming is both a bit of a fetish and a stereotype (without necessarily being a widespread reality), this article panders somewhat to people's confirmational biases. So, I'm wondering if either the article's reporting is unreliable, or if perhaps Xiangyi's mum is exaggerating her parenting approach for publicity (even if it's negative, some people still desire it).

I can believe that there is at least some truth to the interview (e.g. 50-100 jumps a day spread across two ice sessions would be a high but realistic training load for e.g. Russian girls) but maybe not the the extent that she is describing (it's almost like she's bragging to intimidate Xiangyi's competitors...) Also some hilarious details call into doubt factual accuracy e.g. Ms Zhang being an adult skater learning singles in her 30s and miscarrying due to training overload... I learned single jumps in adulthood and there is no imaginable way that this level of exertion would cause miscarriage. Or maybe the point was to illustrate her being obsessive enough to jump while in late pregnancy (...why not work on footwork instead?)

In no way do I want to minimize child abuse - if Xiangyi is indeed being abused then I hope the authorities intervene (it's in the interest of the Chinese skating federation too, since such an environment is unsustainable). However, I am inclined to think that that there is a strong element of narcissism/exaggeration mixed in with Ms Zhang's account of her own abusiveness. I've definitely seen aspects of her parenting approach in a milder form with some skaters' parents, and admit the tendency for some Asian parents to be pushy (though not my own), but this 'tiger parenting' subculture is as much about boasting of making one's child work hard (implicitly in comparison to others) as it is about the actual methods employed at home. Nobody just goes about being a tiger parent privately at home; rather, it's a proverbial dick-measuring contest where they feel the need to flex their 'parenting skills' to fellow parents.

Apologies for the long post - contemporary mainland Chinese media culture is still something I am slowly wrapping my head around, and this article raised some wider points that I felt the need to articulate.
 

Lunalovesskating

Moonbear power 🐻
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 3, 2018
How reliable is this article? It would be unacceptable if it were true, but my issue is that the level of abuse is almost ridiculous in its severity (like the sort of slanderous charges that are usually dismissed in court). Zhang Aijun's purported parenting style would be unlikely to produce a skater with the apparent success that we see from her daughter (at least for now). Also, if Xiangyi is part of the national team (whose training system is backed by sports science and have been reliable at least in producing consistent pairs), wouldn't they prevent her mum from interfering in training with unproductive/unscientific methods (e.g. unnecessary stress-fracture-inducing jump repetition)? Does anybody know of official records of Xiangyi missing competitions or parts of seasons due to injury, so we can corroborate?

My general impression of Weixin/Weibo is that a lot of sensational tabloid-style articles are common - there seems to be a lot of content designed to generate incredulity and outrage (and thus views). Given also that tiger mumming is both a bit of a fetish and a stereotype (without necessarily being a widespread reality), this article panders somewhat to people's confirmational biases. So, I'm wondering if either the article's reporting is unreliable, or if perhaps Xiangyi's mum is exaggerating her parenting approach for publicity (even if it's negative, some people still desire it).

I can believe that there is at least some truth to the interview (e.g. 50-100 jumps a day spread across two ice sessions would be a high but realistic training load for e.g. Russian girls) but maybe not the the extent that she is describing (it's almost like she's bragging to intimidate Xiangyi's competitors...) Also some hilarious details call into doubt factual accuracy e.g. Ms Zhang being an adult skater learning singles in her 30s and miscarrying due to training overload... I learned single jumps in adulthood and there is no imaginable way that this level of exertion would cause miscarriage. Or maybe the point was to illustrate her being obsessive enough to jump while in late pregnancy (...why not work on footwork instead?)

In no way do I want to minimize child abuse - if Xiangyi is indeed being abused then I hope the authorities intervene (it's in the interest of the Chinese skating federation too, since such an environment is unsustainable). However, I am inclined to think that that there is a strong element of narcissism/exaggeration mixed in with Ms Zhang's account of her own abusiveness. I've definitely seen aspects of her parenting approach in a milder form with some skaters' parents, and admit the tendency for some Asian parents to be pushy (though not my own), but this 'tiger parenting' subculture is as much about boasting of making one's child work hard (implicitly in comparison to others) as it is about the actual methods employed at home. Nobody just goes about being a tiger parent privately at home; rather, it's a proverbial dick-measuring contest where they feel the need to flex their 'parenting skills' to fellow parents.

Apologies for the long post - contemporary mainland Chinese media culture is still something I am slowly wrapping my head around, and this article raised some wider points that I felt the need to articulate.

From what I have gathered the Chinese fandom thinks this article seems to be probably legit considering that this article confirms things that they have been hearing for years and that have been hinted at in other interviews by Nini's mother.
For example many have wondered how Nini has the time to train and compete in figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics and contemporary dance if she goes to school... well according to this article she does NOT go to school. Also there was an article in 2017 where Nini's mother also mentions that Nini does not receive normal education, but "cultural lessons". https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YKGQLXycmht41FK73n1bEw

There were discussions on several Chinese forums on what they think about this and they know by far more about this than I do. I leave the links here:
https://m.douban.com/group/topic/182538973/
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6781999170

Also here a documentary from 2015 where her mom stretches Nini despite Nini screaming and crying in pain.
Nini also says "I hate my dad" and throws a shoe at her father's photo.
https://youtu.be/apqgg9qbEPE

I also hope that everything in this article is not true.. but the things mentioned in there are very concerning and should be looked into by professionals, at least to confirm wether or not they are truthful.
 
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