Korean Leads Chinas Cheerleaders
Frankly, we want the Chinese team to win. A lot of Chinese people are superstitious, and if they lose the game they sometimes blame it on unlucky cheerleaders.
On January 28 at the Jiangsu Wuxi Sports Center in China, where the professional basketball Korea-China all-star championships were being held, a familiar face could be seen in between cheerleaders dancing to the music. It was Cho Su-jin (33), who has been leading the Chinese all-star cheerleading team since last year. She became famous for leading the Chinese cheerleading team Sujin Dance in the 2002 Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup.
For this event, Cho gathered 10 team members from her 70 students and gave them special training. The 10 included Yaedan (23), a second-generation Korean-Chinese cheerleader who came to Cho just three months before the event. Born of a Korean mother and a Russian father, she came to China two years ago and worked as an aerobic trainer.
Cho, on the other hand, was born and bred in Incheon and became an aerobic trainer after graduating from Moonil Girls High School. After turning 20 in 1994, she left for China.
My family wasnt doing so well, and since I wanted to learn Chinese, I decided to settle in China. For the first year and a half, the going was tough, but I couldnt give up then because all my efforts would have been wasted.
Acknowledged for her choreography skills in China, Cho was featured on an aerobics program on Beijing Television from 1999 to 2002, gathering many avid followers. As of now, she is under contract with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and is in charge of cheer and dance performances for the leagues 16 basketball teams.
Cho and Yaedan will meet with Korean fans on January 30 at the Incheon Samsan sports center, the site of the next basketball match between China and Korea.
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