An Aussie Skater in
Shanghai
1
Sep 2007
Jiangwan
Skate Park
Skateboarding in
Australia, particularly in coastal regions
with numerous beaches like NSW and
Queensland, is very popular. But in China,
the appearance of this kind of extreme sports
is a new phenomenon. Therefore it is not
accidental, that so far the biggest
skateboard park in China is designed by
Aussies, and one of China’s top ten skaters
is from Australia.
The new skate park is situated
in Shanghai’s Jiangwan Wujiaochang (江湾五角场) in Yangpu district (杨浦区) near famous Fudan (复旦) and Tongji (同济) universities, where a round
interjection branches out in five directions.
And that top skater from Crocodile Dendy’s
homeland in Queensland is 21-year old George
Jackson.
George does not have a
heartthrob appearance like that of Mel
Gipson, nor has he won any titles on the
world stage like Ian Thorpe. But he has
secured more Chinese fans than that most
Aussies can probably only dream of, and in
the eyes of his young followers, many of them
are the kids with parents from villages
looking for manual jobs in Shanghai, he’s
not a lesser kung fu hero than Jackie Chan or Jet Lee.
“I used to be a porter back
in Australia, so I’m actually in the same
league as their parents,” George said to
the local journalists while being
interviewed. And he is tremendously pound of
his students whose progress in learning to
skate is, in his words, utterly breathtaking.
“Li is now able to take on the vert ramp,
No. 1 小朋友 (little friend, the
common way to address kids in modern Chinese
society),” he praised effusively his
favourite disciple in his Enghinese (opposite
to Chinglish).
In the skate park, almost
everyone knows this happy Aussie fella. If
you ask who is the best skater here, for
instance, a piper worker called Old Li would
point at that awesome Aussie figure flying in
mid-air. Old Li is not young, but he’s no
smaller fan of George. After he has finished
his work, he would often come and sit
watching George soaring, turning, and
plunging.
Although a hero in his
disciples’ eyes, and a top skater in
everyone else’s opinion, George is neither
a flawless superman, nor a smart businessman.
He sometimes gets himself injured, and has
never been able to earn more than 500 AUD a
month. When he is laughed at for being a poor
migrant in China, he is only too thrilled.
“I can make money while having fun, and
have so many Chinese friends, what a life!”
