Chinese skating news & social media updates pt. 5, 2023 onwards

[On My Own]

As advised by @Sylvia.

The skaters who competed internationally during the 2022-23 season are (written in Chinese name order; seniors bolded, mixed season Italics):

Men: Jin Boyang, Chen Yudong, Tian Tonghe
Women: An Xiangyi, Cheng Jiaying
Pairs: Zhang/Yang, Wang/Jia, Yang/Deng
Ice Dance: Wang/Liu, Chen/Xing, Li/Wang, Lin/Gao


2023-24 season:

Possible advancements to seniors: Chen Yudong, An Xiangyi, Dai Dawei (David Day)

Possible new appearances on the junior circuit (Discipline): Liu/Ge (Ice Dance), Li Ruotang (Women), Tong Ruicheng (Women), Wang Yihan (Women), Gao Shiqi (Women), Zhang Ruiyang (Women), Han Wenbao (Men)

Possible retirements: Peng/Jin
Rumoured new senior pair: Peng/Wang
Splits: Wang/Jia
Sun/Li, Xiao/Wang
Question marks: Zhu Yi (Beverly Zhu), Chen Hongyi, Wang/Liu

Provincial Teams (Funding, National Winter Games 2024 competitions and medals):

Province Name	Skater(s)(Discipline)
Beijing	Chen Yudong (Men), An Xiangyi (Women), Li Ruotang (Women), Tong Ruicheng (Women), Wang Yihan (Women), Gao Shiqi (Women), Zhang Ruiyang (Women)
Guangdong	Dai Dawei (Men), Peng Zhiming (Men), Xiao/Wang (Ice Dance)
Heilongjiang	Jin Boyang (Men), Zhang/Yang (Pairs), Chen/Xing (Ice Dance), Li/Wang (Ice Dance), Liu/Ge (Ice Dance)
Jilin	Tian Tonghe (Men), Wang/Liu (Ice Dance), Lin/Gao (Ice Dance)

 

[On My Own]

Let me know what else I can put into the OP within the next 24 hours when I can still edit!

Just as an example, if someone posts a list of the provincial teams the skaters I've typed up are part of, I'll insert it into the OP.

ETA: Oh, and definitely interested in knowing who else we can expect to advance to seniors next season, and who we might see debuting as juniors (many girls were old enough, and I forgot David Day's age). And possible CoC host spots. @Gris @raruki

Hopefully this season there will be more actual news and less "let's trace these people's footsteps through their social media presence" and therefore less rumour mongering. And more competitions, of course.

 

[raruki]

You should also add David DAI to the “Possible advancements to seniors.” He will definitely be the third man in COC 2023.
HANG Wenbao, the 2nd in Nationals 2023, will possibly advance to the junior circuit next season.

Sun/Li, Xiao/Wang

That very disturbing pair, Sun/Li, can't attend any international competition due to the enormous age gap.
Who is Xiao/Wang？ Do you mean ZHANG Jiaxun/ HUANG Yihan？ It is a pity that they are only able to compete in the 2025-2026 season internationally because the girl is too young for the senior circuit while the boy is overage for the junior circuit. I wish Luan can push them, especially HUANG, a lot harder. HUANG is pretty incompetent compared to his partner Zhang in terms of fitness and technical levels（And HUANG is a pretty heavy smoker! ASK HIM TO QUIT SMOKING ASAP!）.

I would also recommend you add the junior girls who are eligible to the JGP next season.
LI Ruotang, TONG Ruicheng, WANG Yihan, GAO Shiqi, and ZHANG Ruiyang, all from Beijing, will possibly attend the junior circuits next season. Interestingly, women single skaters had been the weakest link for Chinese figure skating for a very long time. However, With Nini(AN Xiangyi) and these girls, Team China has the strongest women skaters in decades. It still cannot compete with the Japanese, Russian, and Korean girls, but they for sure can constantly enter the FS in any major international events, and possibly help Team China to earn and secure 2 spots in women's single skating in any major international events for a couple of years in future.

 

[On My Own]

Who is Xiao/Wang？ Do you mean ZHANG Jiaxun/ HUANG Yihan？

It's the Ice Dance girl + her coach who's a decade older. I didn't know that about Huang.

I'll add the ones you mentioned in.

Also, everyone currently can compete against the Russian girls and win, don't you worry about it.

 

[raruki]

It's the Ice Dance girl + her coach who's a decade older. I didn't know that about Huang.

I'll add the ones you mentioned in.

I am actually fine with WANG Yi's pair. WANG Yi is actually a very decent coach (compared to ZHANG Tianci )and pretty active in Chinese skating fandoms. The reason why he has to skate with his student is that there is no male ice dancer in Guangdong, a skating desert. And his student and her parents strongly want to try ice dance but it was extremely hard for them to find a male partner in Guangdong. If your student and her parents agree, along with the difficulties of finding a decent male partner, I understand that they have to skate and compete together.

 

[On My Own]

So does this mean Beijing has risen as another centre for FS in China? And David and Peng Zhiming are both from Guangdong, although I know that province is supposed to be very weak at Winter sports. @raruki Added a province table so lmk if I got them right + help me fill in the blanks with the others.

 

[raruki]

So does this mean Beijing has risen as another centre for FS in China?

Yes, you can say that. Beijing has probably the best commercial skating clubs in China, and most of the skaters I have mentioned are all from these skating Clubs, like Beijing Century Star, Haotai, and Qidi...

And David and Peng Zhiming are both from Guandong, although I know that province is supposed to be very weak at Winter sports

Guangdong is a pretty humid, subtropical province, they just established their winter sports teams after the 2016 NWG as I remembered.

 

[raruki]

Provincial Teams (Funding, National Winter Games 2024 competitions and medals):

Province Name	Skater(s)(Discipline)
Heilongjiang	Jin Boyang (Men), Chen Yudong (Men), Zhang/Yang (Pairs), Wang/Jia (Pairs), Chen/Xing (Ice Dance), Li/Wang (Ice Dance), Liu/Ge (Ice Dance)
Jilin	Tian Tonghe (Men), Wang/Liu (Ice Dance), Lin/Gao (Ice Dance)
Beijing	An Xiangyi (Women), Li Ruotang (Women), Tong Ruicheng (Women), Wang Yihan (Women), Gao Shiqi (Women), Zhang Ruiyang (Women)
Guangdong	Dai Dawei (Men), Peng Zhiming (Men), Xiao/Wang (Ice Dance)

CHEN Yudong is now representing Beijing.

 

[On My Own]

CHEN Yudong is now representing Beijing.

Thanks for the update. I remembered he'd been called a Qiqihar athlete when he attended 4CC, so I put him in his original province, although I knew he'd been training at Beijing Century Star for a while.

ETA: If one of the others completes the province table and posts here, I think I'll be able to get a moderator to edit it into the OP, so no worries.

 

[otisgear]

I apologize for bringing the bad news to the new thread, but Wang/Jia (pairs) have split.

Wang replied to messages on weibo
saying that he ditched her after 4CC, blamed her for holding him back for the last 5 years, and is now skating with a 13 year old…

 

[raruki]

I apologize for bringing the bad news to the new thread, but Wang/Jia (pairs) have split.

Wang replied to messages on weibo
saying that he ditched her after 4CC, blamed her for holding him back for the last 5 years, and is now skating with a 13 year old…

Jia is literally a trashy person. He was also allegedly accused of deliberately making her previous partner fall and injured so that he can change partners. But we can't punish him or asked him to leave because pairs skating in China is rooted in strong misogynism
Also another trashy person we can see from the Weibo post is HUANG Yihan, he directly badmouthed her previous partner WANG Yuchhen saying that she was incompetent and he wanted to change partners. OOOH, can he please find a mirror to look at himself first and just review all of her videos in competitions? How many jumps he fell compared to WANG？ How often he missed
the lifts？ How often he missed the levels of the death spirals and spins？

These jerks should be fired instantly

 

[Karen-W]

Wowowow! Wang/Jia isn't a great loss, IMO. They're the ones who WD after the SP at 4CCs, right?

 

[raruki]

Wowowow! Wang/Jia isn't a great loss, IMO. They're the ones who WD after the SP at 4CCs, right?

Yes.

 

[Gris]

I apologize for bringing the bad news to the new thread, but Wang/Jia (pairs) have split.

Wang replied to messages on weibo
saying that he ditched her after 4CC, blamed her for holding him back for the last 5 years, and is now skating with a 13 year old…

Yikes... And I used to think that Jia was (relatively) a decent person for sticking by his partner during her growth spurt and injuries.

 

[On My Own]

That Zhang Tianci group needs to be checked if he's allowed yet another adult man to skate with such a young girl.

 

[otisgear]

I don't think Zhang Tianci is officially the main coach on Team Heilongjiang anymore. Song Lun's been the coach that's being listed and showing up at K&C, Zhang Tianci seems to show up only when convenient...

Also agree that Wang/Jia aren't super amazing but like, there's literally less than five senior eligible Chinese pairs right now and that number just went down by one, oooof.

 

[On My Own]

I don't think Zhang Tianci is officially the main coach on Team Heilongjiang anymore. Song Lun's been the coach that's being listed and showing up at K&C, Zhang Tianci seems to show up only when convenient...

Well he's here, as an example. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xh411u72y/

But yes, if it's Song Lun's problem, the entire ice rink needs to be investigated.

Official coach of Heilongjiang or just Harbin city? Luan Bo would be for Qiqihar, and I'd hope/pray she's the official coach of the province.

 

[sus2850]

Thank you for creating a new thread @On My Own and @Sylvia, the old title really made me feel uncomfortable.

 

[Marco]

1. When will An Xiangyi be age-eligible for seniors internationally?

2. Any updates on Christy Leung Yi (HKG)? She has been MIA for a while.

 

[On My Own]

1. When will An Xiangyi be age-eligible for seniors internationally?

She already is.

2. Any updates on Christy Leung Yi (HKG)? She has been MIA for a while.

I don't really think Chinese "insiders" would know, because she never switched.

 

[On My Own]

I apologize for bringing the bad news to the new thread, but Wang/Jia (pairs) have split.

Wang replied to messages on weibo
saying that he ditched her after 4CC, blamed her for holding him back for the last 5 years, and is now skating with a 13 year old…

Oof, this seems to have blown up now... Good, drag them.

ETA: ... they deleted lol. Wonder what happened.

 

[raruki]

Calendar of Events - International Skating Union

The International Skating Union is the international sport federation administering Ice Skating sports throughout the world.

www.isu.org

ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating

The ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating usually consists of six events (four during an Olympic season) which take place in North America, Europe and Asia. The World Cup Short Track Series was launched in 1997/98 and the Series celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2017.

www.isu.org

Both GPF in figure skating and the World Cup competition of Short track speed skating will be held in Beijing at the same time
(December 7th to 10th).
I am afraid that the GPF might not be held in the Capital Indoor Stadium, the Olympic venue for figure skating, and has to relocate to the other venue in Beijing due to the massive popularity of Short track skating in China.

 

[raruki]

Sina Visitor System

JIA Ziqi has written a personal statement on his Weibo about why he and his former partner WANG Huidi split.

Spoiler: Disturbing information alert

想跟大家坦诚地说些话

我和前舞伴已经分开有一段时间了，从前是我欠考虑，觉得这是自己事业或职业生涯的一次改变，只要在接下来的路上付出和之前同样多甚至更多的努力来取得好成绩才是对喜欢我的朋友们最好的回馈。不过最近陆续有一些朋友们转发或截图给我看一些评论和讨论，经过了几天的发酵，我决定开诚布公地和大家说一些比较私人的原因，便于真心喜欢和支持我的朋友们更加深入的了解我，或者说了解这件事情。

我从07年成为一名花样滑冰运动员，14年踏入双人滑赛场，可以说训练和比赛很大程度上构成了我的生活，塑造了现在的我。我一直以这个身份而骄傲，梦想是通过坚持不懈的努力获得可以代表国家出战的名额，有机会可以身披五星红旗为国争光。但天不遂人愿，20年至21年我们本应该在国家队参加选拔赛争夺冬奥名额，前辈们都在拼命向前冲，可我们恰恰相反。原因是她觉得自己压力大，不想练也不想滑，甚至扬言轻生，留下了四份遗书，很自然我们俩也就没有参加了后续的比赛。一次的挫折没有让我和教练失去希望，我们陪着她回了地方队想要继续奋斗，我们没有放弃她，可是她不知道是看不到，还是不在意我们的付出，训练完不成，比赛靠运气。诸如此类的事我也不再赘述，只是举一个简单的例子。

我们两个搭伴也有了五年的时间，这五年有好也有坏，最难的时候我都挺过来了，简单来说，如果我真的不想和她滑或者利用她完全没必要等到现在。全运会倒计时三百多天，我真的能保证换了舞伴能取得比以前更好的成绩吗？可能会有人问我“之前那么多年都过来了为什么就不能继续一下呢？”“双人滑需要两人合作，你年长也更懂事付出更多不是理所当然的吗？”

说实话，这些问题我想过不止一百次，我一次又一次的劝说自己要坚持要大度要等到她懂事，但是每一次砸向我的都是一次又一次对方增加的骄傲，对我的不尊重，以及对训练的消极和懈怠。慢慢我想，如果始终不认清现实，还去计较所谓的沉没成本来等待一个渺茫的未来，应该是我太钻牛角尖了，或许是我的不足让对方不满才有了这些表现，那这样的分开也可以看做是彼此去寻找更适合自己的战友，不一定是坏事。运动员的职业生涯有限，一方面，我想在最后这段有限的时间里面找到一个最适合我的并肩作战的伙伴，而不是自己的忍让被人当做理所当然甚至是嘲讽的笑柄，另一方面，我也不想因为我的能力不足耽误或限制更优秀的运动员。

最后恳请大家，如果可以的话，尽量客观地看待这件事情，我们的分开不是早有预谋，也不是突然出现，是很多矛盾积累的结果，纠结孰是孰非并不是我们想要追寻的答案，我相信冰迷们和我一样，我们的一致目标是看到拿得出手的成绩和为国争光的奖牌。我会继续把我真挚热爱的花样滑冰当作人生唯一的事业，去拼搏出一番成就， 用实际成绩来回馈大家的支持和厚爱。

再次十分感谢大家的关注和理解

I highlighted some of the important parts of this statement.
1, He insisted that the main reason why they split is that WANG suffered from huge amounts of pressure, and she wanted to quit and even kill herself multiple times (According to his statement, WANG has left 4 suicide notes). But, he still wanted to support his partner and went back to the provincial team together.

2, The decision does nothing to any bad and evil intention, it was basically the result of many conflicts between his partner and him.

 

[On My Own]

Like 天然美滋滋Lotus there, I am just curious if Wang has received psychological help, assuming this account is true.

 

[raruki]

For me, the whole statement is just trashy.

Spoiler

Even though what he said in this statement is true, making use of others' tragedies and personal stuff like emotional breakdowns and intentions of suicide as excuses just don't have any class (He also needs to question himself. Why does your partner want to kill herself? You don't have any responsibility to lead to this tragedic situation?)

The whole tone of the statement just basically said that I don't have any responsibility. The reason why my partner wants to quit is she suddenly becomes crazy.

A typical and irresponsible Chinese pair skating man. pure 爹味将军

 

[Gris]

Sina Visitor System

JIA Ziqi has written a personal statement on his Weibo about why he and his former partner WANG Huidi split.

I'd appreciate it if you add a trigger warning to this post since some of the things Jia said is quite sensitive. I plan to translate his full post later when I have time.

 

[On My Own]

Seems the Boyang information desk has published a translation to a Japanese article written about Boyang and TCC, and also has an interview with Orser where he talks about him.

微博

随时随地发现新鲜事！微博带你欣赏世界上每一个精彩瞬间，了解每一个幕后故事。分享你想表达的，让全世界都能听到你的心声！

m.weibo.cn

ETA: The main points they summarized are that him joining had been planned for a long time and it was his own personal decision, Orser feels he has natural technique, the students TCC accepts are told it will take 1.5 years for the efforts to show up, and that they don't have to meddle with his jumps too much.

 

[Gris]

Full translation of Ziqi Jia's post regarding things happened between him and his ex-partner Huidi Wang:

Spoiler: Distressing content

I want to honest with you all.

My ex-partner and I have split for a while. In the past, I was thoughtless and merely considered it a change in my career. I thought that working equally hard, or even harder than before to get good results would be the best way to repay my fans for their support. However, recently, I've seen some reposts and screenshots of comments and discussions, and after a few days of escalation, I decide to talk about some personal reasons openly so those who truly like and support me can learn more about me and what has happened.

I became a figure skater in 2007 and a pairs skater in 2014. I've spent most of my life training and competing, which has shaped who I am now. I've always been proud of this and my dream is to represent the country with my hard work. However, I had no such luck. From 2020 to 2021, the senior skaters were all pushing ahead and we should have competed in the Olympic trials of the National Team too. But we failed to do that because she felt that she was under too much pressure and didn't want to train or skate. She even claimed that she'd kill herself and left four suicide notes. As a result, we didn't take part in the subsequent competitions. The coach and I didn't lose hope because of this and we returned to the provincial team with her, trying to keep fighting. We didn't abandon her, yet she couldn't even finish her practice and had to be helped by luck in competitions. I wonder whether she didn't see our sacrifice or she just didn't care about that. This is just an example, I won't elaborate further on things like this.

We had skated together for five years. During this time there were both good days and bad days and I made it through the hardest times. To put it simply, if I really didn't want to skate with her, or I wanted to use her, there was no need for me to wait until now. The National Winter Games are only about a year away, it's not like I can surely do better with a new partner. Maybe someone will say things like, "Why can't you stick by her for a little longer? You've skated together for such a long time." or "Pairs skating requires teamwork. You're older and more mature, of course you should put in more effort."

Honestly, I've thought about these many times. Again and again, I told myself to stick by her, be tolerant and wait for her to grow up. However, every time, she responded to me with her ever-growing ego, disrespect, and negativity and slackness in training. I started to think that maybe I shouldn't make pointless effort and hold on to the slightest hope anymore just because of the sunk cost. I should get real. Maybe she behaved like this because she was unhappy with my incompetence. Then our split might be a good thing because in this way we could both find the partners that suited us better. The career of an athlete isn't long. On the one hand, I want to find a partner that suits me the most in the limited time of the last leg of my career, I don't want my tolerance and patience to be taken granted, or even laughed at anymore. On the other hand, I also don't want to hold back or waste the time of a better athlete with my incompetence.

Lastly, I hope you try to look at this more objectively. Our split isn't planned or happened all of a sudden. It's the result of accumulated conflicts. Who is right, who is wrong, that's not the most important question here. I believe that the skating fans and I share the common goal of decent results and medals. I will continue to focus on figure skating, something I truly love, and work hard to achieve success to give back to you for your support.

Thank you very much again for your attention and understanding.

My thoughts...

Spoiler: Better hide it under a spoiler too

First of all I think Jia's post underlined the general ignorance of mental health in China, and things are definitely even worse in competitive sports. I can't say I'm surprised anymore but SHE WAS LITERALLY LEAVING MULTIPLE SUICIDE NOTES and people around her still thought she was throwing a tantrum and being slack!

Now about Jia himself... Well this is such a self-important post isn't it? All he talked about is his effort, his sacrifice, how good he is and obviously everything that went wrong is all her fault. And apprently he has no respect for her right to privacy as well.

Given that Jia is now paired with a girl born in 2010 I also have to laugh at his claim of "wishing to represent my country" and "wanting to find a partner that suits me the most". The most suitable partner for an adult man is a teenage girl? And you know what, with such a big age gap you won't even be able to compete internationally!

 

[On My Own]

Spoiler

First of all I think Jia's post underlined the general ignorance of mental health in China, and things are definitely even worse in competitive sports. I can't say I'm surprised anymore but SHE WAS LITERALLY LEAVING MULTIPLE SUICIDE NOTES and people around her still thought she was throwing a tantrum and being slack!

Yes, and it's why I'm also curious if she's been offered any assistance? Everything else is very irrelevant to me after reading it. I hope Jia's post IS boosted, if only so that someone ends up focusing on the girl.

 

[Gris]

Yes, and it's why I'm also curious if she's been offered any assistance? Everything else is very irrelevant to me after reading it. I hope Jia's post IS boosted, if only so that someone ends up focusing on the girl.

I doubt that her struggles have ever been taken seriously given that Jia just casually posted such a private thing publicly in a dismissive tone.