U.S. Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen is an example of how being Chinese-American can be a double-edged sword today in China.
The 22-year-old took the top prize on Thursday at the Winter Olympics in the men¡¯s figure skating event. But his record-beating performance, which sealed Chen¡¯s reputation as the top skater in the world, promoted more castigation on Chinese social media than it did elation.
A hashtag discussing Chen¡¯s victory was the second-highest trending on the Twitter-like Weibo platform shortly after his win. Many of the comments, however, were negative, including some users who decried his performance as mediocre and ¡°ape-like,¡± while others called him a ¡°banana,¡± a derogatory term used to describe people of Chinese descent who are Westernized.
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