Da Hsuan Feng: An Impromptu Reaction to Eileen Gu
February 11 , 2022
By Da Hsuan Feng, academic advisor of Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and former Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Last night, I watched how Eileen Gu (谷爱凌) made her spectacular jumps and won the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing the “Freeski Big Air” gold medal.
The name Eileen Gu has been floating around in the world of social media for quite some time, but it was not until when she actually won this gold medal that the entire world became completely fascinated by her. In this regard, I of course am no exception.
In every respect, using the American cliché, Eileen Gu is unquestionably a “Golden Californian girl,” except that she is not completely blond and has a Chinese American twist! Not only is she exuding a supreme and all powerful sportsmanship, she is also intellectually powerful, with a nearly perfect SAT score and her beauty already made her a fashion model. With such versatilities, it bestowed her the opportunity for Stanford University to admit her as a freshman this coming September!
As a Chinese American (although she is only half that since her father is a white American), she is a dream outcome. In today’s Chinese American families, many are known as the “a group of ivy climbers 爬滕族.” This means that the “ultimate” aim of such families is to have the children entering Ivy-League universities. Of course, in Eileen Gu’s case, entering Stanford is also acceptable.
Several years ago, when I was still at the University of Macau, I met a young faculty member whose academic credentials intrigued me. When this person graduated from a Macau high school, he was accepted to study electrical engineering at Cornell University (an Ivy league university). After he completed his Bachelor degree, instead of pursuing a more advanced degree in EE in a university in the United States, he made the transition and went to the Institute of Theoretical Physics in the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing for his doctorate degree.
Such an unusual career path, which in mindset would be completely “unthinkable” nor would it be available to me when I was a student in the United States gave me an entirely perspective about how the world had changed.
Compare this young person’s career path with Eileen Gu, it clearly is another night and day. In Eileen Gu’s case, there is absolutely everything available for her in the United States in particular and the Western world in general. Also, the most conventional wisdom for Eileen Gu would be for her to continue doing what she had been doing (as an American girl) and be absolutely successful in it.
Yet she did precisely the opposite. She became a Chinese citizen. Since China does not allow dual-citizenship, she had to renounce her US citizenship. If she could keep that as a low profile, which in her case would not be possible, especially now that she is an Olympian gold-medalist, that would be alright. Now, I am sure she will be met with criticisms, some even severe ones.
In her press meeting after she won the gold medal, she was already peppered by the press core some of the expected questions. Questions such as (and I paraphrase) “Since you are an American and has received the best from the country so you could be so successful, why do you not want to represent your country the United States?”
The questions she was bombarded with, and I am sure many which will be forthcoming after she returned to the United States as a student at Stanford University may be even more direct, if not harsher. The answer she gave for such questions clearly manifested that she held no malice towards the United States, but only deep love and gratefulness for both countries. She was able to stand above “nationalism” and wanting to use such a rare opportunity bestowed to her to want to contribute something important for humanity, especially now!
For all of us, what Eileen Gu had done deserves careful evaluation. Indeed, judging from the young faculty in Macau University and now Eileen Gu, it is telling us that the world is transforming in a profound manner.
Indeed, never before in human history has there been two powerful nations with different civilizations and histories meeting and colliding heads-on like what we have today between the United States and China.
Furthermore, as the world faces more and more severe existential challenges, such as climate change, young people like Eileen Gu whose
foot-print is in both nations will have to live in it when they become enlightened in 20 or 30 years. For them to assist humanity to find solutions to these existential challenges, they will have to and must assume a global view as soon as possible! To that end, what Eileen Gu did, is truly an important step representing her generation in that direction.
My young friend’s career path in Macau, while it was quite unthinkable, was not as spectacular. China as a nation when he was drafting his career path which was about 2 decades ago, was not considered in any dimension comparable to the United States.
In Eileen Gu’s case, in perception and maybe even in reality, China is. The preparation which China had made for the 2022 Winter Olympics clearly manifested to the world that it is a nation wrapped in self-confidence, and in more ways than one is comparable to that of the United States.
As two leading nations for humanity, United States and China should and must carry additional responsibilities on their cooperative shoulders in mitigating the existential challenges humanity is being confronted by.
Facing that, the world will definitely need more, far more, Eileen Gu’s. Not less.
