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African-Chinese athlete picked for national volleyball team

Thursday, 16th April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)

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It was bound to start happening sooner or later: multiracial Chinese athletes making waves in Chinese sports. Volleyball player Ding Hui (丁慧), who has a Chinese mother a South African father, has been selected to train with the Chinese national team. National team coach Zhou Jianan calls Ding one of the country's top five players, according to this report from the FIVB. Ding speaks fluent Mandarin and the Hangzhou dialect, and very little English and no African language, multiple stories say.

Ding, who is 20 years old and 1.85 meters (just over 6 feet) tall, grew up with his mother in Hangzhou and was enrolled in a sports school at a young age, says this article from Tencent Sports. He began playing volleyball for the provincial youth team in 2003 and joined the junior national team in 2004.

While Chinese media are showing a lot of interest in Ding's unusual background he, unsurprisingly, just wants to focus on volleyball. Below is our translation of part of a recent interview he did with 163.com Sports (full interview in Chinese here):

163.com sports: Because your father is African, it seems that your situation is unique. How do you feel about it?

Ding Hui: I want to say that I am Chinese. I grew up in China, so for me to represent the national team in competition is very normal.

163.com: Perhaps it's because of your appearance (skin color) that everybody is curious about you. How do you feel about it?

Ding Hui: I don't want everybody to just see this about me, to pay so much attention to my appearance. I don't think too much of this. Being selected for the national team is a very rare opportunity, and it hasn't been easy. Everyone I'm playing with now is at a very high level, and I'll have to put in a lot of effort in practice and matches.


Ding joins a team of 18 players, of whom eight are returning players from the
team that was eliminated from the 2008 Olympics by silver medalists Brazil.

Related Links:

163.com: China's Top 8 Half-Breed (sic) athletes

Danwei: First Half-African, Half-Chinese Volleyball Player

FIVB: Black athlete Hui Ding becomes China's new sporting star

Chinese Volleyball Association: China national men's volleyball team roster

Ding Hui image: sports.163.com

Tags: Ding Hui, race, volleyball

Comments

  • D_Right_One
    Wednesday, 18th November 2009
    He has a very good attitude about his status. Asians sometimes are callous about people of mixed heritages. His work ethic perhaps will show them his patriotism to China. If not, come to USA, we could use better soccer players and mixed heritage people are common here.

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