Who Is the Real China? Eileen Gu or the Chained Woman?
The New York Times
The women’s starkly different circumstances — celebrated vs. silenced — reflect that to the Chinese state everyone is a tool that serves a purpose until it does not.
Two women have dominated Chinese social media during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
One is Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old skier born and raised in California who won a gold medal for China. The other is a mother of eight who was found chained around her neck to the wall of a doorless shack.
The Chinese internet is exploding with discussions about which of the two represents the real China. Many people are angry that the government-controlled algorithms glorify Ms. Gu, who fits into the narrative of the powerful and prosperous China, while censoring the chained woman, whose deplorable conditions defy that narrative.
