*

Kevin Du's unusual path to hockey success

Thursday, 20th November 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)


Thanks to Shanghaiist contributor Geoff Ng for alerting CST to this video about Chinese-Canadian hockey player Kevin Du. Du, who graduated from Harvard in 2007, now plays for the Shanghai Sharks. The video tells the story of his family; his father fled Saigon in 1975, spent five months in a Malaysian refugee camp and eventually gained immigrant status in Alberta, Canada. He encouraged young Kevin to play hockey as a way to insulate him from the racism that the family faced as the only Chinese family in a small town.

In an interview on the video, the elder Du speaks about the ability of sports to help people see beyond their differences: "We want to blend a kid into society so they don't feel different than the other kids. And no better way to do that than by playing hockey, because in hockey you meet a lot of people."

Tags: Chinese-Canadian, hockey, Kevin Du, Shanghai Sharks