Elsie has a put a potential Olympic shooting career on hold
to study journalism in London.
Elsie is a petite and sweet 22-year old from southern China. But don’t let the timid façade fool you. Elsie is one of very few Chinese girls to be a professional athlete in shooting.
"My father was a policeman and I lived near a shooting stadium all my life", she says. "I practically grew up with gun noise and it was a natural choice for me to learn how to shoot", she says with a smile.
Elsie has successfully reached the second of three levels. On the third – you compete on an Olympic level.
Apart from being an active athlete, Elsie has a BA in Chinese, and only a year ago she was offered a job teaching Chinese as a second language.
But, being curious and adventurous, she chose to try her wings and embark on a post-graduate journalism degree in London.
She laughs and says: "My father pushing me, and telling me how important it is to challenge yourself probably helped me decide".
Challenging foreign experience
It hasn’t always been easy for Elsie living and studying in a completely different culture, far away from home.
“The way people think and act here is completely different from China”. One thing she finds stands out is that it’s much more focused on individuals here.
“In China we almost always do things in groups and here you’re more left to yourself”
Elsie becomes serious for a second, and talks about how she has found it challenging to start expressing her free mind and being more outspoken.
“In China one is normally told what to do and think. Here I have to force myself continuously to be more outspoken and opinionated".
Elsie’s goal with the journalism course is to work as a free-lance for a lifestyle magazine.
She smiles cunningly, and says that working for a magazine and write a column within lifestyle can be a clever way for Chinese journalists to express themselves more freely in an otherwise restricted society.
“I would also be able to enjoy my passion for culture and travel". And she adds with a smile: “When I don’t practice my shooting of course”.
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