‘The Best Moment of My Life’: Genocide Barbie Secures Celebrity Status After Winning Gold for China

Eileen Gu, the US-born skier who defected to China, has become a massive celebrity after her gold medal win for the red team in the Beijing Olympics. So much of a celebrity, it is reported that her fans briefly crashed China’s top social media platform, Weibo.

After Gu achieved the first 1620 in her life, a feat that gave her Olympic gold, fans flooded Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, causing the social media platform’s servers to overload, the Associated Press reported.

Fans in China can’t get enough of Gu. One hashtag for her big win had earned over 900 million views on Weibo. And on Tuesday, five of the top ten trending topics were about the 19-year-old skiing champion, Chinese news media outlets reported.

BEIJING, CHINA – JANUARY 13: A billboard showing American born freestyle skier Eileen Gu, also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing, who will compete for China, is seen from the window of a subway car as a mother and her son ride on the train on January 13, 2022, in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

“It’s very cheering. She’s of Chinese origin and has returned to China. I feel proud of her,” said Beijing resident Jiang Yu, 36, who watched Gu’s performance with a multitude of other Beijing residents.

“18-year-old Eileen stands on the podium and tells the world: Confident Chinese look so beautiful,” one Weibo user wrote.

Gu also appears on hundreds of billboards throughout the country as well as the cover of Chinese Vogue.

People walk in front of an advertising billboard showing China’s US-born gold medallist Gu Ailing Eileen at a shopping mall in Beijing on February 9, 2022. (Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

In China, Gu is known as Gu Ailing. However, Chinese fans have taken to calling her “Snow Princess,” even as some Americans are using a less favorable nickname of “Genocide Barbie” for the skiing star.
Gu does annoy some Chinese fans because she still hasn’t learned to speak Mandarin and does all her interviews in English with a Chinese interpreter by her side. But that complaint has taken a back seat now that she has won gold for red China.

“That was the best moment of my life,” she said after winning the gold. “I just cannot believe what just happened,” she added as Chinese fans thrilled to her achievement.

Despite the adoration in China, Gu has refused to state clearly if she gave up her U.S. citizenship and became a Chinese citizen. China recently changed its residency requirements so that Gu could be a permanent resident as a top athlete, but “residency” is not the same thing as citizenship, and Gu won’t say where she stands on the matter. Gu has repeatedly dodged the question whenever the western sports media asks her about it.

Gu has also attempted to fashion herself as an advocate for oppressed peoples. She happily jumped on board with the Black Lives Matter movement to criticize race relations in the U.S. Unfortunately, she has remained entirely silent about China’s genocidal crimes against its Uyghur population. Nor has she said a word about the Chinese government’s oppression of Christians, the Falun Gong, or China’s brutal suppression of the pro-democracy movements in Tibet and Hong Kong. Clearly, she only cares to support oppressed people if she thinks they live in the U.S.A.

In addition to displaying skiing talent at a young age, Eileen Gu has been highly successful as a fashion model, with a portfolio that includes ads for Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

【爱玲】As we count down the hours till Beijing’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony, a moment for our third VOGUE+ guest editor, 18-year-old freestyle skiier, model and dreamer, Eileen Gu. (ph: Davit Giorgadze) ⛷️❄️☃️ pic.twitter.com/Zy8uFIB5Nl

— Margaret Zhang 章凝 (@MargaretZhang) February 4, 2022

She has become one of the biggest celebrities in China, with immense exposure through her modeling career, fawning state media coverage, and flashy ad campaigns making her one of the faces of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

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