With one gold medal under her belt, Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old American-born Chinese skier, has become a superstar almost overnight in China, charming the country with her superior athletic skills, model looks and standout intellect.
In recent days, however, the outpouring of adulation for Gu on the Chinese internet has been tempered somewhat by a small current of discontent. Some social media users are criticizing her for being unaware of her privileged status after comments she made about internet freedom in China.
It began when a user commented on one of Gu’s Instagram posts before she won the gold medal in the women’s freeski big air event last week.
“Why can you use Instagram and millions of Chinese people from mainland cannot,” the commenter wrote, according to a screenshot of the since-deleted exchange. The user went on to question why Gu received “special treatment” compared with other Chinese citizens.
“That’s not fair, can you speak up for those millions of Chinese who don’t have internet freedom,” the user added.
“Anyone can download a VPN,” Gu replied, according to the screenshot. “It’s literally free on the App Store.”
Most major Western news sites and social media apps like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are blocked outright in China. Some Chinese, including several Olympic athletes like Gu, can tunnel through the digital border using a VPN, or virtual private network. But VPNs are increasingly difficult to gain access to in the mainland, and the Chinese authorities have punished citizens who have used the technology to scale the system of state-controlled internet filters known as the Great Firewall.
Within days, a screenshot of the Instagram exchange was circulating on Chinese social media. While some people praised Gu for her combativeness, others lashed out at her for being out of touch with the struggle of ordinary Chinese citizens.
“Literally, I’m not ‘anyone,’” one user wrote. “Literally, it is illegal for me to use a VPN.”
The fervent discussion of Gu’s personal life in recent days has also spurred broader discussions about persistent social inequality in China. Several articles suggesting that the Chinese government granted an exception to its prohibition on dual nationality, allowing Gu to keep her U.S. passport, have been censored in recent days. (Gu has declined to answer repeated questions about her nationality.)
Her mother, Yan Gu, is the daughter of a former Chinese government official and worked for investment banks in the United States and as a venture capitalist between California and China. Eileen Gu also benefited from elite education in both the United States and China, something that is out of reach for most Chinese families.
In one viral article, a writer drew a comparison between Gu and a woman in southern China who appeared in a recent widely circulated video chained by the neck inside a shed. Since it emerged last month, the video has sparked public anger toward the Chinese authorities for their failure to protect vulnerable women.
“The systemic challenges and structural shackles that Chinese women face have not changed,” the author’s article wrote. “The reality is that the vast majority of women have no chance to become Eileen Gu.”
In recent days, Chinese censors stepped in to block that article, too.
