The making of ‘China’s’ first skiing princess: Neo-liberal feminism and nationalism in Eileen Gu’s online presence during the 2022 Winter Olympics

Abstract

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics birthed a cultural phenomenon in China: Eileen Gu, an 18-year-old half-white, half-Chinese ‘skiing genius’ who left the United States to join team China. In this article, I explore the ways in which Gu’s online presence informs understandings about class, women, race, ‘Chineseness’ and the complex entanglement of the neo-liberal self and collective nation. First, I provide an introduction to sports nationalism and neo-liberal feminism to situate Gu in the post-socialist neo-liberal Chinese context. Then, I turn to Gu’s social media posts, self-made videos and online commercials during the Winter Olympics. I argue that Gu is presented within (1) a neo-liberal feminist moment characterized by individual empowerment and (2) a nationalist and cosmopolitan moment framed by the national pride towards her and her self-framing of a flexible citizenship and ‘apolitical Chineseness’. I conclude that the ‘Eileen Phenomenon’ is an illustrative instance of the shifting demarcations in a global political economic field, in which a desirable Chinese identity and a marketable femininity are both crucial for the Chinese state under globalization. Gu’s case shows that the interplay and contradiction of the neo-liberal self and the nationalist collective continue to play out in contemporary Chinese culture and society.