The criticism Gu gets is ridiculous. Plenty of Olympians have dual citizenship or specifically obtain citizenship to compete for countries less competitive than the one they have etc. Watching the Netflix ice dancing mini series, they mentioned that some famous ice dancers went and got citizenship elsewhere to compete like France, Spain, etc.
Additionally, there’s some Americans with dual citizenship and they aren’t being called unpatriotic when they compete for their other country like Gus Kenworthy.
Draxxthemsklounsst on
It’s literally nothing but sinophobia. If her mom was from any other western white country, no one would bat an eye if she represented that instead of amerikkka.
Cicada_5 on
If MAGA could read, they’d be very upset about this.
nightblueandroid on
“I think people are hypocritical for shaming her for representing China. So in my head it’s a bit hypocritical, because her mom is an immigrant. Y’all would have told her to go back to China. Now that they’re back in China, you’re mad.” This. Precisely this. I couldn’t have said it better.
colong128 on
As Eileen has said, they’re just mad cos she’s winning gold medals. If she wasn’t a winner, then nobody would care.
People accuse Gu of “sportswashing” for China as if we can’t accuse every single American athlete of doing the same?
jfc_itsjasonbourne on
I agree Americans have no right to criticize China / Gu during this day and age. US deserves all the hate. But I’m sorry, are we forgetting what happened to Hong Kong in 2019/2014 and what is still happening to Tibet and Uyghurs? I dare anyone to hold up a Winnie the Pooh bear in the middle of Tiananmen Square and see how long before you get put into a van. Let’s not pretend China isnt a country of oppression and bigotry and is paying her out of the goodness of its heart.
Wanting to represent your mother’s home country is one thing but taking $23M from an oppressive nation and make some excuses about bringing attention to freestyle skiing is comes off wrong to me.
SwallowAndKestrel on
I think the criticism is more than valid but misplaced on her.
Reaping the benefits of one country while having had to flee from the other, then basically pretending the reason you won and are successful is because of the country you had to flee is very problematic thinking. Also its very unthankful.
However in this case she didnt do it because of that, she just wanted to push wintersports in China for girls which is less accessible and less popular over there. I really understand her in this regard and I fully support her thinking.
And it cant be that western nationalism is bashed on but nationalistic proud thinking in other areas is promoted. One of the big successes of western culture is being self critical as a society so dont try to withhold this from other cultures.
10 Comments
Unlocked article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/arts/dance/alysa-liu-olympics-figure-skating-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RVA.1Yho.ajs5ho97nf2y&smid=url-share
This has been widely discussed in Asian subs.
The criticism Gu gets is ridiculous. Plenty of Olympians have dual citizenship or specifically obtain citizenship to compete for countries less competitive than the one they have etc. Watching the Netflix ice dancing mini series, they mentioned that some famous ice dancers went and got citizenship elsewhere to compete like France, Spain, etc.
Additionally, there’s some Americans with dual citizenship and they aren’t being called unpatriotic when they compete for their other country like Gus Kenworthy.
It’s literally nothing but sinophobia. If her mom was from any other western white country, no one would bat an eye if she represented that instead of amerikkka.
If MAGA could read, they’d be very upset about this.
“I think people are hypocritical for shaming her for representing China. So in my head it’s a bit hypocritical, because her mom is an immigrant. Y’all would have told her to go back to China. Now that they’re back in China, you’re mad.” This. Precisely this. I couldn’t have said it better.
As Eileen has said, they’re just mad cos she’s winning gold medals. If she wasn’t a winner, then nobody would care.
https://preview.redd.it/771b64rodsng1.png?width=806&format=png&auto=webp&s=a15ae4979b6b0bf18365dc87de73b9e24c2236d6
People accuse Gu of “sportswashing” for China as if we can’t accuse every single American athlete of doing the same?
I agree Americans have no right to criticize China / Gu during this day and age. US deserves all the hate. But I’m sorry, are we forgetting what happened to Hong Kong in 2019/2014 and what is still happening to Tibet and Uyghurs? I dare anyone to hold up a Winnie the Pooh bear in the middle of Tiananmen Square and see how long before you get put into a van. Let’s not pretend China isnt a country of oppression and bigotry and is paying her out of the goodness of its heart.
Wanting to represent your mother’s home country is one thing but taking $23M from an oppressive nation and make some excuses about bringing attention to freestyle skiing is comes off wrong to me.
I think the criticism is more than valid but misplaced on her.
Reaping the benefits of one country while having had to flee from the other, then basically pretending the reason you won and are successful is because of the country you had to flee is very problematic thinking. Also its very unthankful.
However in this case she didnt do it because of that, she just wanted to push wintersports in China for girls which is less accessible and less popular over there. I really understand her in this regard and I fully support her thinking.
And it cant be that western nationalism is bashed on but nationalistic proud thinking in other areas is promoted. One of the big successes of western culture is being self critical as a society so dont try to withhold this from other cultures.