From the age of 6 to 28, twin divers Wu Qiting and Wu Qijun, from "and Tilian" to two independent "Wenwu flowers", sister Tingting learned Chinese medicine, calligraphy and painting, sister Junjun learned martial arts, woke up lions, and a very similar face grew a different temperament: a delicate literary atmosphere, a cool and handsome.
Junjun (left) teaches Tingting (right) to beat wooden stakes at home.
The 14-year-old twin sisters Hua Jingjing and Yingying, in 7 years of synchronized swimming training, have grown from a female doll to a young girl, with almost the same face, the same introverted and innocent.
14-year-old twin sisters Hua Jingjing and Yingying.
"The Twins' have a natural advantage in training and competition, but we have never deliberately let each other be exactly the same and walk the same path. There is always a node that we want to grow individually. Tingting smiled and said, "Just like what is said in the ancient literary and art drama: two flowers bloom, one branch each." ”
Wenwu Sister Flower: "We are both independent and cooperative"
When she was a child, Tingting and Junjun lived in Xiguan Old Street, which was particularly eye-catching because they were twins. Mom especially likes to dress her two daughters up exactly the same. In the first grade of elementary school, the diving team coach who came to the school to select team members took a look at the twin girls - the twin sisters on the diving platform were too rare. After passing the test, Tingting and Junjun began a 6-year long hard training.
The first time I really felt the "benefits" brought by the twins' tacit understanding in the competition was at the competition of the 14th Guangzhou Games. Because the sister shouts the password every time, she will usually jump a few tenths of a second first, so the sister will jump slightly higher. "I clearly remember when I was jumping on the 3-meter board, I saw with the afterglow that my sister had already taken off, and immediately took off, and deliberately jumped a little lower, and the result was that the two people fell into the water at the same time." Tingting said that although their action difficulty score is not very high, but because the action is too tacit, so they finally got the third place in the two double jumps.
There is a good foundation for diving for the body, since the junior high school period, the two sisters successfully began 6 years of taekwondo training, but the two people's respective characteristics gradually appeared. The younger sister has a relatively active personality, and is obsessed with martial arts, and learns more and more in boxing and skills, and later because of chance, she met Master Deng Jinzhao, the representative inheritor of the intangible Guangdong Awakening Lion (Huang Feihong Lion Art) municipal level, and became more and more fascinated by the traditional culture of the Awakening Lion. As she grew older, her sister became more and more calm, and because of her sports, she became interested in the study of traditional bruises and Chinese medicine, and at the same time became fascinated by calligraphy and painting, and devoted herself to continuous learning.
Today, Tingting has determined to take art as the direction of development, and Junjun has become the new generation of inheritors of the non-heritage Guangdong Awakening Lion (Huang Feihong Lion Art). "In fact, I often think that maybe it may really be three years old and eighty, our different development directions, in retrospect, there are actually traces to follow." Junjun said that when he was a child, his parents took the two sisters to drink tea, afraid that they would run around, and use paper and pencil to "lure" them to sit still, and the sister would obediently keep drawing, and she would tear the paper and stuff it from the neckline of the clothes, filling the whole dress.
JunJun explained with a smile: "There is a part of the lion awakening performance, where the lion dancer usually wears clothes in his pants and uses them as a large pocket to hold the litter, just like when I was a child, from the neckline until the whole dress is filled. ”
However, recently Junjun has been "plotting" to mobilize his sister to form a twin lion, "Master has always wanted to build a women's lion team, but it is difficult, I have not been able to find a suitable partner." By chance, my sister came to play with us, and we found out that it was not all effortless. As twin sisters, there is both innate "telepathy" and tacit understanding cultivated before, and they can often meet and train, which is definitely the "best partner".
After Tingting and Master Deng Jinzhao's lion team got together, they also slowly became interested in the culture of waking lions: "Whether it is traditional Chinese medicine, calligraphy and painting or waking lions, they are actually traditional Chinese culture, as a post-90s generation, if you can learn deeply, and then personally participate in the inheritance and dissemination, it is very meaningful." She and her sister agreed to give a year to train the "twin lions", and then tried to use a variety of artistic means to promote the art of waking lions. "It's interesting to develop individually or to find a direction where we can work together." Tingting said, "Being independent and cooperative is the most suitable way for us to grow up." ”
Synchronized swimming sister flowers: "It's a lot like it now, but the road ahead can be different"
Jingjing and Yingying's births were only a minute or two apart, and "barely" was separated from her sister and sister. From childhood to adulthood, there is not much obvious difference in their appearance, height, and weight. "Outsiders may only be able to distinguish us from one more mole than my sister." Yingying said softly, pointing to the mole on her eyebrow. Jingjing smiled and said that the students seemed to be distinguished by the fact that they were wearing different color watches: "Fortunately, we have not been in the same class, so we have not let the students be too 'distressed'." ”
Coach Li Juan has always been very "distressed" about this: "When they wear swimming goggles and swimming caps in the water, they can't tell who is who, so they have to shout 'that sister or sister, pay attention to this action'. ”
The two sisters, who are only 14 years old in March this year, have slender figures and long hands and feet from nearly 7 years of hard training: before junior high school, they practiced three nights a week at the Tianhe Swimming Pool and 2 weekends for half a day, but now they have reduced the number of trainings due to their studies, but they have not given up the sport.
At the beginning, "entering the industry" was only because the two girls had poor physical fitness, and their parents let them learn to swim and strengthen their bodies. But the coach felt that the twin sisters had a tacit understanding and suggested that they try synchronized swimming and develop into a double project. Li Juan told reporters that in the selection of trainees, there is indeed a practice of giving priority to the selection of twins: "Of course, in addition, according to the characteristics of the two people, we must try to give full play to their respective advantages in action choreography." “
Over the past few years, two youngsters have competed in several competitions, including doubles and collective events. "In doubles, being twins still has some advantages, even without music, we can synchronize our movements by knowing each other." Jingjing said that this seems to be a kind of magical telepathy. In 2018, they finished third in the 10-year-old doubles event at the national competition and first place in the A group of the two-person event at the 2021 Municipal Games.
This kind of "telepathy" often occurs, Jingjing said: "In fact, when we were young, we did not pass the qi, and we often spoke in unison; there was also a chinese exam writing essay, we wrote the same subject, the content is still very similar, the teacher feels surprised." Although there is a tacit understanding that ordinary combinations cannot achieve, as a competitive sport, it is impossible to rely entirely on this "telepathy", but still relies on a lot of training. "In fact, when we were young, in the early days of the competition, our movements were not so aligned, and as we participated in more and more competitions, we played better and better on the spot, and our tacit understanding was also exercised."
In daily training, the sisters are trained in the basic skills of dance.
Although synchronized swimming training has brought many benefits to both of them, such as good physical fitness, figure and posture, outstanding athletic ability and athletic performance, perseverance and hard work personality... But they don't see synchronized swimming as a professional direction for future development.
At a young age, they have a clear plan for the future: "We hope to find a profession that interests us, and then make synchronized swimming one of our interests in life, or to develop other interests and specialties from the foundation it has laid for us." For the future changes, they are looking forward to: "Now we are very similar, but the road ahead can be different." ”
Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Lin Lin
Photo, video/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Chen Youzi Intern: Shi Liang
Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng Editor: Zhang Yingwu