Tencent sport news reported yesterday that a “unique” volleyball player of mixed African and Chinese descent, 20-year-old Ding Hui (丁慧) from Zhejiang, has made the Volleyball Association’s list of 18 big-shot volleyball players. Chosen by Zhou Jian’an (周建安), the chief trainer of the national men’s team, the writer of the report called Ding Hui a free individual, who is flexible and agile, and also the first “black” player in the history of the national volleyball team.
The Tencent article follows:
Ding Hui, who is 20 this year, grew up in Hangzhou. His father is from South Africa, and his mother is a Hangzhou local. Black skin, thick lips, white teeth: these are Ding Hui’s features. But his fluent putonghua and Hangzhou dialect surprises people who meet him for the first time.
In 2004 he was chosen for the junior national team and allegedly is on the list for competing in the 2012 Olympics Games in London.
This calls to mind the story of Zhu Junlong (朱军龙), a “black boy” who was picked up by an old woman in Shanghai and then “adopted” － he was left abandoned in “a stretch of green” (China Daily) seven days after he was born in 2000. Zhu cannot register with the family he lives with because he does not have identification. He is also often described as having “no nationality” (无国籍). Zhu Junlong’s schooling is a problem, and the old lady finds it difficult to keep him well-fed － apparently he eats a lot.
- Tencent Sport (Chinese): First black player in national volleyball
- Zhejiang News Online (Chinese): Old woman adopts baby with ‘no nationality’
- China Daily: Abandoned child basks in maternal love