Jin Jing

Jin Jing (Chinese: 金晶; Pinyin: Jīn Jīng; born 1981 in Hefei, Anhui, China) is a Chinese female Paralympic fencer. She was a torchbearer carrying the Olympic torch amid political protests during the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in Paris, France. According to ''ABC News'', she fended off protestors who "threw themselves" at her; most were wrestled away by French police but at least one reached her wheelchair and tried to wrench the torch away. Jin has gained national fame in China because of the incident, but was attacked on Chinese internet bulletin boards for her stance in the following call to boycott French retailer Carrefour that resulted from public anger toward France. In contrast, Western media concentrated on how the incident involving Jin Jing ignited Chinese nationalism and claimed that the incident was exploited for propaganda purposes by the state media."Jin Jing, la handicapée médaille d'or de la guerre des images", ''Marianne'', April 26, 2008, p.22

Family and personal life

Jin Jing's parents are wage earners. Her father, Jin Jiansheng (Chinese: 金建生), is a sent-down youth who moved from Shanghai to Anhui during the Cultural Revolution, where he met and married Liu Huayao (Chinese: 刘华瑶). Jin was born in 1981, in Hefei, Anhui, She has a younger sister, Jin Renyu (Chinese: 金任钰).

Jin had part of her right leg amputated in 1989 when she was in elementary school after a malignant tumor was found on her ankle and later underwent a year of chemotherapy. She moved to Shanghai with her family in 1995 and studied information technology in a technical secondary school. After graduation, she worked as a telephone operator in a hotel in Shanghai. Jin got married in Shanghai in September 2013.

Career

On July 13, 2001, the day when Beijing was elected the host city for 2008 Summer Olympics, Jin Jing became a member of the Shanghai Wheelchair Fencing Team. Later on she joined the Chinese National Wheelchair Fencing Team.

Her career as a fencer is summarized in the following table:

On May 6, 2008, Jin Jing was named as the ambassador of a Paralympic cheering group to help publicize Paralympic sports worldwide in the runup to the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

On September 6, she brought the Paralympic torch into the Bird's Nest stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games. On this occasion, she "made headlines in the Chinese media", according to the Agence France-Presse.

2008 Summer Olympics torch relay

In 2007, Jin Jing turned up for a selective trial, titled ''You Are the Torchbearer'', which was organized by China Central Television, and was chosen to be an Olympic torchbearer. On April 7, 2008, she was the third torchbearer carrying the Olympic Flame during the relay in Paris, amidst protests and physical attempts to snatch the torch by demonstrators. According to ''ABC News'', "Protesters denouncing Chinese policy in Tibet threw themselves at Jin. Most were wrestled away by police but at least one reached her wheelchair and tried to wrench the torch away." Jin was quoted by the state-run newspaper ''China Daily'' as saying that she "would die to protect the torch." The International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge commented on the incident, saying, "What shocked me most is when someone tried to rob ''(sic?)'' the torch off a wheelchair athlete, a disabled athlete who was unable to defend the torch. This is unacceptable."

On her arrival back to Beijing, after the Paris relay, Jin was interviewed by ''Sohu''. Of her experience of the relay, she said:

Commenting on Tibet itself in interviews, she said she knew little of politics before encountering the demonstrations in Paris, and had never heard of the pro-Tibet independence movement. When asked by the UK's ''The Daily Telegraph'' she also said, "My opinion before was that Tibet was an inseparable part of our country, now I hold this point more firmly than before."

Jin has been celebrated first on internet bulletin boards and soon in Chinese media.