The success of Chinese women's volleyball team, especially their gold-winning victory at the Rio Olympics, has brought changes to ace spiker Zhu Ting's home village. Officials flooded in to visit her parents, fixed roads, gave the family honorable titles, and she became the talk of the town, with many saying that they now want daughters.
The day China's women's volleyball team played in the final in faraway Rio de Janeiro, Zhu Anliang and Yang Xuelan got up at 5 am.
They had received notice earlier that township and village officials would be joining them to watch their daughter compete on TV.
The couple were really nervous, both about their child's big moment and about the gathering. They cleaned their yard over and over again and borrowed 50 chairs. It was the first time in their lives they were hosts to this many "guests." In preparation, Zhu Anliang wrote a note and put in his pocket.
"If they ask me to say a few words, I'll just read from the note," he told Tencent's Everyday People.
Zhu Anliang and Yang Xuelan are the proud parents of Zhu Ting, the ace spiker of the Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team, champions at this year's Games. Zhu Ting is regarded by many as a genius ballplayer and is seen by some as the next Lang Ping, the current coach of the women's team, who in her playing days won Olympic gold when she was only 20 years old and led the team to multiple victories on the world stage.
Just last week, Zhu arrived in Turkey to start a new chapter in her life. After being recommended by Lang, she will be playing for Istanbul's hugely successful Vakifbank Club.
Zhu's victory has changed her life and her hometown. Her family members have benefited financially from her win and received special attention from local governments. However, this attention has also been criticized, with some arguing officials are actually taking the opportunity to flatter their own vanity.
Changes to her village
After the volleyball team won the gold medal, Zhudalou village, an obscure and poverty-stricken place, has gained fame as Zhu Ting's hometown.
According to Everyday People, the best way to travel to Zhudalou from the Dancheng township seat is a four-wheel drive car, followed by a tractor. The only road leading up to it is made of dirt and riddled with potholes. When it rains, the road often floods and looks no different from the river nearby.
But after around 10 kilometers on the dirt path, when one gets closer to Zhudalou, one meets a new concrete road. This new piece of rural infrastructure is one of the consequences of sporting success.
The road was built in 2015, when the Chinese volleyball team won the Women's World Cup for the first time in 11 years and Zhu Ting was chosen as the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP). After this victory, Dancheng township officials visited Zhu's house and found the road too difficult to traverse. Afterwards, they allocated some money to the village to fix it up.
Some villagers have started calling it "Zhu Ting road."
At the entrance to Zhu's house, five banners hang in the air. The last time so many banners were hung in the village was more than 20 years ago, when the local government wanted to push for the Family Planning policy to be obeyed.
Back then, the banners read "Fewer children and more trees make you richer." Now the banners read "Follow the example of the volleyball team's tenacity, focus on defeating poverty."
Zhu's parents' house has now become the indisputable heart of the village. The parking space next to their house has been swept clean. After the Olympics, the wall on the other side has become a place of fierce competition for companies looking to hang their banners.
Visiting representatives of a television manufacturer noted Zhu's parents were using an old TV and the next day sent them their latest model.
New appliances are just one way Zhu Ting's family members' lives have changed for the better due to her volleyball prowess. In 2014, Zhu paid off her family's 200,000 yuan ($29,980) of debts and bought her parents a new house. She also bought her father a car.
After the Olympics, Zhu's second eldest sister stopped working part-time jobs in the county and will accompany her to Turkey to take care of her. Her youngest sister now has the chance to go to a better school.
The family was once looked down upon by other villagers for having five daughters and no son. But now many are saying it might be nice to have a daughter.
Everywhere in the village and in town, reporters heard people discuss Zhu Ting. They talked about her past life there and the changes she's brought. Some said she's a miracle worker.
