Reporter | Ma Yue Lu Yibei
Edit | Xu Yue Ya Han Xiang
1
On February 8, the last jump in the Big Jump arena of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing landed steadily, as if symbolizing a superstar landing in the public eye.
In the women's steeplechase finals of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 15, China's Gu Ailing won another silver medal with a score of 86.23 points.
But before winning the gold and silver medals one after another, Gu Ailing has been in a crushing posture, frequently appearing on television, bus platforms, elevators, supermarket shelves and even fashion magazine covers, betting on successful brands to let her represent the brand image intensively. After the official launch of the Winter Olympics, people on social networks are enthusiastically discussing her growth trajectory, life details, family education, and path choices.
Gu Ai Linglong pattern race suit became popular. Image source: Visual China
Gu Ailing shot an advertisement for Mengniu. Image source: Visual China
Born in 2003, this young girl has become the first "post-00s" superstar in China's vision because of her transcendent athletic achievements and the spiritual temperament of the younger generation reflected behind her personality, image and growth trajectory.
Superstars have meaning under the firmament of the times, and when we look closely, the condensed gaze of Gu Ailing reflects the characteristics of those times, and we will find that she is not only an outstanding athlete, but also regarded as an educational role model, and a "perfect girl" in the minds of thousands of middle-class families who send their children to cram schools, interest classes and study abroad in China.
As an athlete, in the competitive sports industry where pain and honor are equal, what this young athlete breaks is a traditional narrative of suffering, and the love of skiing itself drives her constant challenges.
As a widely circulated evaluation later said: "Gu Ailing does not have the slightest bitter feeling of squeezing himself and making desperate bets, but a vibrant desire to win." ”
During the race, it wasn't until the last second that Gu Ailing chose the super difficulty of the final jump of 1620 in the freestyle ski women's big jump final – rejecting her mother's suggestion to let her do 1440 to fight for the silver medal, which was undoubtedly an extremely challenging choice, because in previous training, she had never even done it on the snow or on the trampoline. Before that, only her opponent Tess Ludd had challenged.
It was a big gamble, and she won the bet.
"The mentality I had in the game wasn't that I wanted to win, I wanted to win myself. So whether I end up doing this action (success) or not (failure), I will be proud of myself, and I challenge this action so that the whole world can see what I think in my heart. She said.
Gu Ailing participated in the final of the women's freestyle skiing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Image source: Visual China
"Have fun" and "enjoy the game" - this is probably the expression that appears most frequently in Gu Ailing's growth process and competition career. She began learning to ski at the age of 3, one of her chosen hobbies. In her eyes, skiing is no different from other hobbies, and even learning is before skiing. Her favorite sports also include trail running, soccer, basketball, archery, horse riding and rock climbing.
The same is true of Su Yiming, another post-00s skier in China, who met Gu Ailing as early as a teenager and shouted "Have fun" to his friends who were about to participate in the final when he first won a silver medal in his Winter Olympics.
"They're very good, and when you do these [ice sports], you can feel that they are genuinely fond and happy." Zhang Shaobo, the director who once aimed the shooting footage of the documentary "Juvenile Chronicles" at the two, felt that the success of Su Yiming and Gu Ailing could not be simply summarized by "family money training".
Through Gu Ailing, witnessing a person being able to respect the wishes of the heart so much, to do their best for love, but also to inspire many Chinese older than Gu Ailing to sleep in their hearts, remembering their unfinished dreams – or even never found .
And this dream was not "mainstream" at first.
When Gu Ailing first came into contact with skiing in China as a child, The Chinese freestyle skiing circle was still very small, and in her words, there may not be 100 people in total, and almost all the people engaged in the sport know each other. Today, the circle has grown at an unimaginable rate.
Gu Ailing at the 21/22 Freestyle Skiing World Cup At Mammoth Mountain Station in the United States. Image source: Visual China
And for most people who only pay close attention to ice and snow events for the first time through the Winter Olympics, such extreme sports are a window into human ability to break through boundaries. "It seems that China does not yet have science fiction in ice and snow sports. I want to write a person like Gu Ailing into a story. Science fiction writer Han Song wrote his idea on Weibo after watching the competition, "The ultimate games that will determine the fate of mankind will be held in Antarctica. ”
This may also be the value of China's active hosting of the Winter Olympics, driving a group of naturalized athletes such as Gu Ailing to participate in the ice and snow sports on behalf of China and driving 300 million people to participate. This allows people to see the significance of the times of a new generation of athletes, and also affects more post-00s to achieve their own achievements in ice and snow sports, and even more sports and art fields.
At the same time, many people highly identify with Gu Ailing, and also show her contempt for gender prejudice through practical actions, giving more women encouragement and inspiration.
At the age of 12, Gu Ailing mentioned in a speech at the school that when she joined the freestyle ski team, she was the only girl in the team, and sports and independence did not exist in the traditional female image, but she spent three years to prove her strength and change the prejudices of her teammates.
The video of the speech was screened on social media, and the users of the message were mostly women, and the first person in the hot review read "girls can do anything" (girls can do anything).
"To all the teenagers, especially the girls, my greatest hope is for everyone to reach out, to try, to find a love of ice and snow sports." Through ice and snow sports to understand themselves, to challenge themselves, to break boundaries, to meet friends, to do things that were not thought of before. ”
Gu Ailing's deeper leap forward is to cross the very different cultures and societies in China and the United States. And the global and integrated qualities she presents are exactly what many Chinese parents today have so much hope for the next generation.
The Guardian called her a "bicultural star". It may be difficult for you to find an individual like Gu Ailing who has so wonderfully integrated the Chinese and Western cultures of millennials among the athletes and idol artists of the past— a young girl with a mixed-race face, native English but Speaking Beijing Mandarin, like a typical American high school student, with authentic Beijing life experience and cultural identity. This contrast is also the source of her unique temperament.
Born in San Francisco, USA, but spends his summer vacation in Beijing almost every year. In her growth trajectory, there are both "elite" lifestyles such as the cultivation of middle-class interests in the United States, private schools, and vacations, as well as the experience of "second understanding"Chinese in the Huangzhuang Olympics in Haidian, Beijing.
Gu Ailing in her teenage years. Image source: Weibo @ Frog Princess Ailing
Gu Ailing in Beijing. Image source: Weibo @ Frog Princess Ailing
In the documentary, Gu Ailing's American coach also learned quite authentic Chinese expressions in communicating with her, and even the Internet language, using "she is a 250" to joke and "666" to cheer her up.
Faced with challenging questions about Sino-US relations raised by foreign media, Gu Ailing's answer was: "I can do a backflip in a U-shaped snow field about seven meters high, which is not politics, but challenging the limits of human beings and connecting human beings." ”
Gu Ailing's speech and values are also a footnote to the reshaping of the values of the younger generation in the process of China's journey towards tolerance and opening up. It represents the appearance of a generation that grew up in the rapid growth of China's economy since the reform and opening up: highly educated, with an international vision, having its own good things in addition to learning, and having a fully personalized expression.
All parents are discussing the possibility of becoming Gu Ailing – not themselves, of course, but their own children.
But where exactly did you learn?
Is it like Gu Ailing said that sleeping enough for 10 hours a day, sleeping more is the magic weapon for success? Is it to continue to devote yourself to haidian cram schools in an American-style educational environment and not forget to inherit the tradition of exam-oriented education? Or "chicken baby chicken before chicken", otherwise the high training cost can not be talked about?
For anxious Chinese parents, the "perfect" educational template has never been absent and is constantly evolving.
20 years ago, "Harvard Girl Liu Yiting" was popular in that era when China's economic and social development was far less than today's, and parents tried to replicate Liu Yiting's "counting time in minutes" style of hard work; in 2011, The Tiger Mother War Song of Cai Mei'er, a Chinese-American mother, ranked first in the US bestseller list for several months, attracting dozens of foreign media tracking reports, including the Wall Street Journal, cai Mei'er's high attention to school and piano training, and the strictness of asking children to strive for the first, became the focus of discussion between Chinese and American parents Even to this day, Lang Lang's diligence in practicing at least 8 hours a day is still a warning for thousands of parents when educating their children.
Gu Ailing (first from left) participating in a long-distance running competition. Image source: Weibo @ Frog Princess Ailing
Chinese regard education as the most important input to nurturing the next generation, and even if they are scattered overseas, the Chinese still cling to this tradition. Although the connotation of education is changing, from the supremacy of scores to quality education, more recognition has been gained, what has not changed is the unlimited feelings, energy and resources that chinese urban parents have invested in their children. The tight educational resources and higher expectations for their children have further exacerbated the anxiety of contemporary Chinese parents.
For parents after the 60s and 70s, letting their children study well and go to a good school is the clear road with the highest certainty of life benefits. But for China's now-large-scale middle-class families, Gu Ailing projects another outlet, and what she has may be the common growth brand of the post-00 generation. The expectation that parents place on their children is no longer to go from small towns to big cities, but to send their children to various art, music, sports interest classes for training, so that they can become a more three-dimensional person - have a love and pursuit of interest, live for themselves.
"In the process of educating my children, I have been reflecting on my regrets in life and re-examining my life." Chen Yuanming is a post-90s mother who went to the United States to study as an undergraduate and engaged in the financial industry after returning to China. "Our generation of Chinese is numb, and the people who go abroad to study are all studying business, because everyone thinks that doing business and making money in finance has always lived in the eyes of others." The scariest thing is that we don't have faith or love, which is a shame. ”
Gu Ailing's inspiration is that "if a person can find what she loves and stick to it, the sense of accomplishment from it may naturally give upward energy." Chen Yuanming said.
Behind this is a note on the emergence of middle-class families and the transformation of China's education model.
"The post-80s generation is actually the first generation of only children, and they were born at that time with an unprecedented opportunity for upward mobility." Zhang Cong, an assistant professor at Fudan University's School of Social Development and Public Policy, told Interface News, "In this generation, higher education is considered to be the best way to obtain capital reproduction such as high-paying jobs, social status, prestige and connections, and achieving upward mobility is increasingly dependent on the education level of individuals." ”
But as China's participation in the globalized market economy deepens, parents have a new understanding of the ideal traits needed to succeed.
At present, Chinese parents, especially those in cities, do not fully agree with the traditional concept of parenting, but hope to strike a balance between "traditional Chinese" and "Western" parenting forms. Scholars have also noted that between 1998 and 2002, the parenting philosophy of parents in Shanghai underwent a dramatic change, that is, the increase in support for children's care, autonomy and the decline of high-pressure measures.
Zhang Cong said in a study that while contemporary Chinese families with fewer children encourage academic performance, parents also value traits such as cultivating their children's independence and individual adaptability, which have been successful in the global neoliberal system.
Gu Ailing, on the other hand, is condensing the public's entire imagination of cultivating contemporary successful traits. Her personal qualities and transcendent meaning are ultimately reflected in modern society and become a symbol.
This, of course, excites commercial brands, because they not only need such an image to communicate with the younger generation, but also need such a symbol to represent themselves. With the retirement of Yao Ming in 2011, Li Na in 2014 and Liu Xiang in 2015, the business world has long looked forward to an epoch-making sports super idol.
IWC advertises Gu Ailing in stores. Image source: Visual China
"The most significant label on Gu Ailing's body is actually to cross China and the United States." Condy, CMO of Marketing Agency Timestrip, said. In her view, the uniqueness of an athlete is what brands want to chase, which is worth amplifying and brilliant, "representing both the best qualities of Chinese and the success factors of American society." ”
This is more valuable for domestic brands that are eager to internationalize, such as antebellum, a sports brand that has signed a contract with Gu Ailing, choosing to paste her large photos all over the store.
Luckin preemptively cooperated with Gu Ailing as early as September 2021, and in January this year, it printed Gu Ailing's photo and the words "Gu Ailing yyds" on two customized products related to snow. Yang Fei, co-founder and chief growth officer of Luckin, told Interface News that brands looking for spokespersons pay more attention to the image of athletes and the tonality of the brand, "professional, young, fashionable and healthy".
Gu Ailing grew up with full stretch, and ski training did not constrain her development in other aspects. In the past, athletes often undertook the health of brand image and product function in commercial endorsement, but Gu Ailing broke this singleness.
In the interval between the broadcast of the Olympic games on CCTV, Gu Ailing's Little Red Book advertisement was frequently played, and this content community known as "planting grass" cooperated with her, in addition to the identity of the athlete, it also tried to amplify the possibility of traffic brought by different labels such as fashion, life, beauty, and study.
Gu Ailing's fashion magazine blockbuster. Image source: Weibo @ Frog Princess Ailing
In the reasons for Xiaohongshu's cooperation with Gu Ailing, "authenticity" is a point that the brand side values. Before signing her to become a spokesperson, the brand not only understood her competitive level, but also did a lot of homework on the content she posted on social media and interacted with netizens.
It is not difficult for people who are curious about Gu Ailing to find a large number of materials and details, and in Weibo alone, she has published more than 700 articles in 8 years.
"We are very concerned about the positive motivation of athletes for young people, and we also very much hope that athletes can show their true side on the Internet." Little Red Book told Interface News.
What interests netizens is not only her skiing achievements, but also her dress and styling. Around the Tiffany ring that was captured by the media after Gu Ailing won the championship, the notes on the Little Red Book have reached hundreds; in the Q&A of her stationed on the platform, netizens will ask what books she has been reading recently, who is her favorite artist, the experience of preparing for the SAT, and so on.
"Gu Ailing is a talented athlete with excellent personal conditions, commercial value and sports value." Liu Yufan, vice president of sports marketing at Ogilvy Beijing, concluded to Interface News, "Brand marketing should conform to social value recognition, and now the requirements for athletes are not only to have a high level of competition, but also to have high knowledge, high energy, and high appearance, such as good learning, high emotional intelligence and fashionable and healthy appearance." Athletic ability is its basic, but also requires him to have all-round talents as an idol. ”