Raducanu’s Shenyang connection
Your need to know about the new US Open champion’s Chinese ‘hometown’
One of Emma Raducanu’s first media acts after winning the US Open on Saturday was to record a short video in fluent Chinese on Sina Weibo for her fans in China. She thanked them for their support – and soon the hashtag “18 year-old Chinese teenager wins the US Open” had been viewed more than 200 million times on the social media platform (Raducanu is British, having lived in the UK since she was two, but her mother is from China and her father is from Romania).
“I think confidence comes from just inner belief. My mom comes from a Chinese background, they have a very good self-belief,” she told the British edition of Vogue. She later added of her mother, “For me having a Chinese mom definitely instilled from a young age hard work, discipline.”
Shenyang, in northeastern China, is the hometown of Emma Raducanu’s mother. As a result it has been in the news too since Raducanu won her first tennis grand slam in New York on Saturday. Over the years the new champion has been a regular visitor to the capital of Liaoning province to practice at the Shenyang Institute of Physical Education. She has even honed her hand-eye coordination playing table tennis there.
Raducanu with the US Open trophy
In China netizens have nicknamed her ‘Dongbei girl’ after the region in China where Shenyang is. Here’s our quick guide guide to Shenyang for those who’ve never been.
History and current size
Shenyang as a city can date its history back to over 7,200 years ago when it was home to the Xinle, an ancient civilisation that was among the earliest to practice agriculture and produce wood carvings.
However, Shenyang only became a cultural and political hub again when Nurhaci, founder of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, made it his imperial capital in 1625 (partly because he saw its potential as a military stronghold and, together with the provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, it formed Manchuria). Shunzhi, the third Qing emperor, moved the imperial capital to today’s Beijing. But even then Shenyang retained a special status as an auxilliary capital for nearly three hundred years until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. The city’s Manchurian name was Mukden.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and occupied it till 1945.
Today, Shenyang is the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning. The city has a population of 9.07 million.
Shenyang’s temperature experiences a huge range, with highs of 39.3 °C in the summer and lows of minus 33.1 °C in the winter.
Local economy
Shenyang was a manufacturing hub for heavy machinery in the early twentieth century. It was said to be the place that manufactured China’s first machine tool, first crane and first jet aircraft. In more recent times Shenyang’s preponderance of state-owned enterprises – a legacy of its being China’s original capital of heavy industry – has been a drag on the local economy. Last year its GDP grew just 0.8% to Rmb657.2 billion ($102 billion). By contrast Shanghai’s GDP was around Rmb3.9 trillion in 2020.
The city’s Shengjing Grand Theatre, by the Hun River (photo by Liu Xu ??)
What to see
Shenyang boasts three World Heritage sites:
The Imperial Palace of Shenyang: Built in 1625 by Nurhaci, it was the home to the first three Qing emperors until 1644. The architecture of the palace is reminiscent of the Forbidden City in Beijing, but also integrates Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian styles. It consists of 114 ancient buildings, over 300 rooms and courtyards.
Fulinh Mausoleum: Located in the eastern suburb of Shenyang, it is the burial ground of Nurhaci and his wife empress. Throughout the Qing Dynasty it served as the main site for ritual ceremonies conducted by the imperial family. Its numerous edifices, statues, carvings, and murals seamlessly combine traditional Han Chinese features with those of the Manchurian.
Zhaoling Mausoleum: Located in Beiling Park, the largest park in Shenyang, it is one of the best preserved imperial tombs where the first Qing emperor Huang Taiji and his empress were buried. It is notable for its ornate gates and scenic gardens.
Entrance to the imperial tomb of the first Qing Emperor Huang Taiji (photo by Liu Xu ??)
Shenyang also features China’s National Museum of Industry. Most of China’s ‘national’ museums are in Beijing, so it is a relative rarity for other cities to play host to one. This is a tribute to Shenyang’s key role in China’s early industrial development and is spectacularly housed in a giant former steel factory ( see WiC201).
What to eat
People in Shenyang enjoy classic northeastern Chinese cuisine. Some of the more popular items include Laobian dumplings, suancai (also called Chinese sauerkraut), stewed chicken and mushroom, shredded potatoes, caramelised sweet potatoes and tanghulu (a candied fruit snack). Emma can be seen eating the latter on an earlier visit to Shenyang.
A photo widely forwarded on WeChat of Emma Raducanu eating a candied fruit snack in Shenyang
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