U.S. Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen is an example of how being Chinese-American can be a double-edged sword today in China.
The 22-year-old took the top prize on Thursday at the Winter Olympics in the men’s figure skating event. But his record-beating performance, which sealed Chen’s reputation as the top skater in the world, promoted more castigation on Chinese social media than it did elation.
A hashtag discussing Chen’s victory was the second-highest trending on the Twitter-like Weibo platform shortly after his win. Many of the comments, however, were negative, including some users who decried his performance as mediocre and "ape-like,” while others called him a "banana,” a derogatory term used to describe people of Chinese descent who are Westernized.