Fame and fury: China's wildly different reactions to US-born Olympians

Three US-born Olympians of Chinese descent have received starkly different receptions in China.

By CNN staff

Updated 0337 GMT (1137 HKT) February 12, 2022

Beijing (CNN)In the span of a week, three American-born athletes of Chinese descent have been thrust into the spotlight at the Beijing Winter Olympics — to very different reactions in China.

All three were trained in the United States and are only a few years apart in age, but their paths diverged on the way to the Games. While figure skater Nathan Chen is competing for Team USA, freestyle skier Eileen Gu and figure skater Zhu Yi opted to compete for China.Gu and Chen both won gold, while Zhu faltered on the ice during two consecutive showings. The public responses they've received in the Olympic host nation also took different turns.Gu was hailed as a national hero, winning hearts, fame and fortune; Zhu was abused online, accused of bringing «shame» to her adopted country; and Chen was labeled a «traitor,» coming under nationalistic wrath for «insulting China.»The young athletes have found themselves embroiled in deteriorating US-China relations, during one of the most divisive, tightly controlled and politically fraught Olympic Games in history. Read MoreOnce seen as cultural ambassadors who could help build bridges between the two countries, Americans of Chinese descent are now subject to heightened scrutiny — left to straddle political fault lines on both sides.In the cases of Gu, Zhu and Chen, their vastly different receptions in China also raise the question of what it takes to be accepted as «Chinese» — in a country that has grown ever more confident, yet less politically and culturally tolerant, since it last hosted the Games in 2008.And even someone as successful