Nicknames for international figure skaters and coaches by Chinese fans

[Bondstreet]

Eteri Tutberidze - Noodle Sister (Origin: her hair looks like instant noodles)
Brian Orser - Uncle BO
Yuzuzu Hanyu - Pomelo
Kamila Valieva - K Wa ("wa" is the Chinese translation of "va", also means "baby")
Alexandra Trusova - Shasha or, better yet: Comrade Trusov
Anna Shcherbakova - "A thousand gold", which in Chinese means "Precious little daughter"
Tiffany Chin - Chen 1
Patrick Chan - Chen 2
Nathan Chen - Chen 3
Karen Chen - Little Chen 4 Baby Sister
Evgeni Plushenko - King Pu
Sui/Han pair - Scallion Bucket Combination - ("Scallion" has the same pronunciation of 'Cong," and "Bucket" refers to Sui Wenjing. When she was younger, Wenjing claimed she didn't have much of a waist...
Jin Boyang - Tiantian

 

[el henry]

Article on Chinese nicknames in The NY Times (and why they are given; as an Anglophone, I needed that explanation so that they weren't just "funny names")

Fly High, Frog Princess! Well Done, Chen No. 3!

The world’s most popular Olympians are household names. But to Chinese fans who delight in creating nicknames, they’re different characters entirely.

www.nytimes.com

 

[skatedreamer]

Eteri Tutberidze - Noodle Sister (Origin: her hair looks like instant noodles)

[clipped for focus]
Noodle Sister...OMG, I love it!
honorable mentions to "Uncle BO" and "Scallion Bucket." Although that's not exactly how I'd ever think of S/H...

 

[Mathman]

I had to look up "Pomelo." In Chinese this tasty fruit is "you-zi" (Yuzuru).

 

[el henry]

The reasons for the nicknames according to The NY Times:

The motivation behind this phenomenon... is fairly simple. Official phonetic transliterations of international names into Chinese — a language whose written characters convey sounds but also distinct concepts and things — can be long, unwieldy and in producing strings of unrelated characters, basically nonsensical.

....

This sort of evocative nicknaming has deep cultural roots in China... Children receive nicknames to offset the earnestness built into the meanings of their given names. Even for adults, the relatively low number of common surnames in China, as well as given names that are typically only one or two characters long, provide more incentives for differentiating aliases.

And according to the Times, in addition to the ones in the OP, Sasha Trusova's other nickname is "Czar".

 

[4everchan]

Cannot get to the article (paywall, tried private window... paywall) I am intrigued in a few of these... can someone be kind enough to paste the explanations ... or at least the "chen dynasty ones" ? and king pu? what is pu?

 

[Bondstreet]

Tiffany Chin, Patrick Chan, Nathan Chen, and Karen Chen all have the same original Chinese surname of “陈”. Depending on when and from where their ancestors immigrated to the west, the same original Chinese last name was translated differently into English to "Chin“, "Chan", and "Chen". So Chinese fans regard Tiffany as the first generation of overseas Chinese figure skaters with a last name "Chen" who achieved great success, followed by Patrick, then Nathan, and then Karen. That is why we have Chen 1, 2, 3, and "Little 4th baby sister," representing the four generations.

Plushenko's last name is translated to Chinese as “普鲁申科” - pronounced as Pu Lu Shen Ker. So "King Pu" is effectively an abbreviation of "King Plushenko."

 

[Bondstreet]

I personally find "Comrade Trusov" hilarious. Because of her fearless degree of difficulties, Chinese fans are making Trusova into a man! And China being still technically a communist country, using the term "Comrade" adds more hilarity.

 

[4everchan]

Tiffany Chin, Patrick Chan, Nathan Chen, and Karen Chen all have the same original Chinese surname of “陈”。 Depending on when and from where their ancestors immigrated to the west, the same original Chinese last name was translated differently into English to "Chin“, "Chan", and "Chen". So Chinese fans regard Tiffany as the first generation of overseas Chinese figure skaters with a last name "Chen" who achieved great success, followed by Patrick, then Nathan, and then Karen. That is why we have Chen 1, 2, 3, and "Little 4th baby sister," representing the four generations.

Plushenko's last name is translated to Chinese as “普鲁申科” - pronounced as Pu Lu Shen Ker. So "King Pu" is effectively an abbreviation of "King Plushenko."

 

[WednesdayMarch]

Pomelo is my favourite fruit so that makes it an even better name for Yuzuru Hanyu! I love both.

 

[macy]

noodle sister

 

[cheerknithanson]

I saw a video last year or 2020 of the same topic regarding NBA players. It’s rather interesting.

 

[Mathman]

Cannot get to the article (paywall, tried private window... paywall) ..

Cannot get to the article (paywall, tried private window... paywall)...

You can beat the NY Times paywall by disabling java script.

But why isn't two-time Olympic medalist Lu Chen one of the numbered Chens?

 

[cheerknithanson]

https://youtu.be/CmaF66S0dKM for context on my above post, here’s the video.

 

[4everchan]

You can beat the NY Times paywall by disabling java script.

But why isn't two-time Olympic medalist Lu Chen one of the numbered Chens?

because she is a local chen ? the answer i was given by the OP is that the numbered chen were out of china athletes

 

[el henry]

Way off topic, but here is a Twitter thread with the Chinese nicknames for NBA players. :



(warning, one is NSFW. )

 

[bsfan]

I love “noodle sister “. Much easier to remember and pronounce than her real name

 

[SNAKSuyun]

China gives nicknames to everything. I feel like my countrymen are incapable of referring to anything by their formal names.

A bit of clarification re: Sasha - generally the "Sasha" diminutive when feminine is just turned into 莎莎 "sha-sha" in Chinese, since the character 莎 is often used for the "sa"/"za" sound in European names (also see "Elizabeth" being 伊丽莎白). China also has a habit of calling people "[]皇" (emperor) when they are successful or have a bit of an attitude (esp both), hence 普皇 "pu-huang" for Plushenko, 莎皇 "sha-huang" for Sasha, etc. Sasha is sometimes jokingly called "czar" because the chinese name for czar 沙皇 "sha-huang" sounds the same, and Russia had czars.
"千金" for Anna literally means "thousand gold" but generally means more than just "precious little daughter" - it's often used to refer to a heiress, or similarly the daughter of a family with lots of money or influence. Anna was given this due to her considerateness and style, as if she was raised in a higher class environment.
Kamila was often called K娃 "k-wa" as noted or just K, but unfortunately since the doping scandal some others have started calling her 嗑娃 "ke-wa" (consuming).
Kaori is usually just called 花织, her name in kanji (in Chinese it'd mean "flower weave," not sure if it means something else in Japanese), although recently I've seen a rise in the use of the more endearing (??) 大花 "big flower."
Wakaba is similarly usually just called 新叶 ("new leaf" in Chinese) but is occasionally (mostly endearingly) called 胖叶 "chubby leaf."
Satoko was called 一姐 "top sis/woman" for a long time due to her dominance and consistency esp in domestic competitions. Also 公园 "public park" due to Chinese sound of Miyahara.
Mao was called 猫 "cat" because, well, the sound is the same.
Yuna was called 女王 "the queen" because, well.
Shen/Zhao are now often called "husband and wife shop" as they run the Chinese fed together.
Hanyu is also called 哈牛"ha niu" due to superficial similar sounds to his last name.
Kolyada is often called 鸭 duck "ya" from the syllable in his name. Unfortunately due to the prevalence of "ya" in Russian names a lot of Russian guys (and male chars) end up having associated duck jokes. Doesn't help that he then also becomes roast duck 烤鸭 or psyduck 可达鸭 because the sounds are k(a)o - ya and ke-da-ya respectively.
Aliev is 阿狸 mr. fox "a li" from sound.
Yagudin is called 熊 bear? I think there's SOME context/story there that I missed because I'm too young.
Patrick Chan is 群群 "qun qun", 群总 "executive qun" due to his Chinese name being 陈伟群 "Chan Wai-Kuan" (Canto) "Chen Wei-Qun" (Mandarin).
Even Lysacek 雷鸟 thunderbird "lei-niao" due to "lei" sounding similar to "ly" and his program.
Javier 海盗 pirate from program.
Yulia Lipnitskaya 软卡 "soft-ka" from flexibility.

 

[gravy]

Tiffany Chin, Patrick Chan, Nathan Chen, and Karen Chen all have the same original Chinese surname of “陈”. Depending on when and from where their ancestors immigrated to the west, the same original Chinese last name was translated differently into English to "Chin“, "Chan", and "Chen". So Chinese fans regard Tiffany as the first generation of overseas Chinese figure skaters with a last name "Chen" who achieved great success, followed by Patrick, then Nathan, and then Karen. That is why we have Chen 1, 2, 3, and "Little 4th baby sister," representing the four generations.

Plushenko's last name is translated to Chinese as “普鲁申科” - pronounced as Pu Lu Shen Ker. So "King Pu" is effectively an abbreviation of "King Plushenko."

Do you know how Chen Lu is viewed within China or by Chinese skating fans? For such a popular sport we didn't really hear anything about her at all during Beijing.

 

[bsfan]

From what I have read, Chen Lu runs the national training group that Zhu Yi is in. Chen had( has?) a skating school in southern city ShenZhen. she wasn’t the main coach in national training center for a long time. She is more popular in North America than back in her home country, unlike s&z