The past few weeks the girls have been very excited to be able to spend some time with the members of the chinese national figure skating team. Granted this time has been made a bit more difficult as a result of our lack of chinese language skills (thank goodness for translation software)…I suppose this offers support for the stay in chinese class arguement but that is another post. That said, they have said hello, watched them skate, laughed, smiled and interacted in a way which made them feel special. Elspeth calls them her “friends” while Katrine beams when she was asked to print her name in chinese characters or when one of the coaches thanked her for the good luck card that the girls made.
My take on this? What a wonderful opportunity for the pair of them to interact with chinese skaters. Yes, we have chinese skaters in Canada. Yes, they are wonderfully talented. No, I do not mean to detract from this talent in any way shape or form. It is so very important for our girls to have chinese role models – both Canadian born chinese, chines immigrants and mainland chinese. We have asian friends so I can attest to the fact that they have ample interaction with smart, capable and dare I say wonderful asian women (I am a bit biased because these ladies are my friends) to draw inspiration from when they seek to define what a chinese woman should be. With my degree in asian studies, they also have access to a sizable collection of texts on chinese history, culture, food, etc. Then you can add to that various experiences with chineseness provided by culture camp, china town, homeland tours, reunions, kungfu, etc.
Being skaters (Katrine certainly is and it does seem as if Elspeth is leaning in that direction), they also need atheletic role models. All of their current coaches are fabulous. They model creativity, passion, dedication and hard work…but they are all caucasian. With this being such a large part of our family life, we have encouraged Katrine’s love of Patrick Chan as a model because it combines the image of chineseness with the qualities of hard work, dedication and success. Meeting and spending time with the chinese skaters has expanded the available concept of role models. Instead of just pointing to Patrick Chan, Katrine has asked to watch videos of other chinese skaters and wherefore goeth her sister, goeth Elspeth.
So, thank you to all of the chinese skaters who have spent time with my girls over the past few weeks. Thank you for opening their eyes further to the possibilities available for chinese skaters. Thank you for showing them hard work, focus and dedication. I am not sure if either of my girls will go as far as you have with their skating but hopefully they will take the qualities you have shown and apply them not only to their skating but their lives.
Good luck to Li Zijun and Zhang Kexin
Good luck to Song Nan and Yan Han.
Good luck to Peng Cheng and her partner Hao Zhang.