She is a Beijing girl: an examination of how Eileen Gu’s Chinese identity was constructed in Chinese media during the Beijing 2022 Olympics

Abstract

Eileen Gu received a widespread public attention as an American-born snowboarder that won 3 medals in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics representing China. Building on the conceptual and historical frameworks of sports and nation-building, and taking Eileen Gu as a case-study, this article analyzes through critical discourse analysis how Chinese mainstream media portrayed Eileen Gu’s image and her Chinese identity. The results show that during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Chinese media constructed Eileen Gu’s Chinese identity through a pluralistic approach: her success is connected with national pride, Chinese food, family relations and kinship, friendship, excellence in study and Chinese totems. We conclude that in the context of sport being an important vehicle for China’s nation-building, this country is expanding the boundaries of Chinese/China through sports storytelling and the naturalization of athletes, linking sporting success to the ‘rejuvenation of China’.