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Updates are becoming wildly inconsistent because I now have a job (yay, capitalism!) that keeps me so busy I want to cry into my keyboard 😭. The chapters are long, my free time is short, and motivation has left the chat. I might pick up a shorter project soon just to trick my brain into feeling productive again.
IBABS Chapter 72 — Domestic Public Opinion & Fuji TV Interview
by RaineThat night, news spread like wildfire across domestic forums and Weibo about the Chinese Track and Field Team’s hurdles squad dominating the top three spots at the Japan Indoor Athletics Invitational, sending shockwaves through the sports community.
China Track and Field Team Official Weibo: [#The New Rise of Hurdles!# On December 13th, during the final day of the Japan Indoor Athletics Invitational in Tokyo, Chinese athletes Zhou Tianjue, Su Zhe, and Ye Jun claimed gold, silver, and bronze in the men’s 60m hurdles finals, dominating the podium!! We extend our warmest congratulations on their outstanding achievement and hope they continue to build momentum during winter training, aiming to shine again at the World Indoor Athletics Championships next March!]
The moment this post went up, it was flooded by ecstatic sports fans, who first reacted with disbelief before erupting into celebration.
[Holy shit! Jue-ge’er, Zhe-shao, and Jun-ye are absolute legends!! First, they all made it to the semifinals at the World Championships, and now they’ve swept the top three at this Japanese invitational? How long has it been since our hurdling team was this dominant?!]
[Yesterday, they each won their semifinal heats, today they completely clinched a full podium sweep! Nothing more to say, Jue-ge’er, Zhe-shao, and Jun-ye are the real deal!]
[Damn, I’m actually tearing up a little. Even though it’s just an invitational, I’m really seeing our country’s hurdles events rise again. Thinking about it makes me a bit sad, we’ve been waiting for this day for ten years…]
[Brother upstairs, not gonna lie, my eyes are stinging too. I’m too hyped to even think straight. All I want is for Jue-ge, Zhe-shao, and Jun-ye to take care of themselves. Training is important, but don’t overdo it. Only by protecting your physical foundation can you keep running to better results!!!]
Besides the track team’s official Weibo, major sports commentators and various official sports channels all made detailed reports and analyses about the Chinese team’s domination of the top three in the 60m hurdles at this Japan competition.
The official commentator from the Sports Channel, veteran sports commentator Zhao Zhiyong, also wrote a special article about this competition in his commentary column.
[The Rising Tide of Chinese Hurdles: A Brief Look at the Past Decade of Development and the Future Prospects of Zhou Tianjue, Su Zhe, and Ye Jun.]1
[After watching China’s 1-2-3 finish at the Japan Indoor Invitational, I couldn’t help but pick up my pen to discuss these three athletes’ results and their future prospects.
First, evaluating competition results without considering the level of the event or the caliber of opponents is inherently unfair. So, let’s examine exactly what kind of challenge these three athletes faced.
On paper, this might seem like just a low-stakes invitational, organized by the Japan Athletics Association with only 12 Asian nations invited. However, it’s worth noting that Japan, as the host, is a nation deeply passionate about sports, particularly in the realm of running. Those familiar with Japanese culture know of their cultural fixation on speed and endurance. As a long-standing powerhouse in Asian athletics, Japan has a strong foundation for track and field events, which lends credibility to any competition they host.
Though only 12 Asian countries were invited, they were carefully selected. Japan chose countries that are Asian powerhouses in track and field, including China, Qatar, Bahrain, and others. In essence, this invitational gathered the best of Asia’s elite.
Given this context, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this event a scaled-down version of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships during the winter training season. The only real difference from the official competitive season is that athletes are currently in their winter training phase, meaning none are at peak condition, but this applies universally – no athlete would adjust their peak performance cycle for winter training.
After this analysis, one thing becomes clear: Zhou Tianjue, Su Zhe, and Ye Jun have firmly established themselves at the pinnacle of Asian 60m hurdles.
After reaching this conclusion, I personally feel very emotional… and I suspect many readers will feel the same.
Since Song Chen retired ten years ago, the level of our country’s 110m hurdles and 60m hurdles can be said to have declined sharply.
To put it bluntly, we went from world-class standards to merely being first-rate in Asia – a staggering drop that any track and field enthusiast would understand.
Since then, even before Song Chen’s retirement, we’ve been waiting for someone to fill the void he left behind. That wait has stretched on for years.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen many promising young talents. Athletes who, in their youth, displayed exceptional height advantage, strong rhythm between hurdles, and superior jumping ability. Yet, none of them managed to carry that momentum into the senior division.
This situation has made us raise our hopes again and again, only to be disappointed again and again.
Hurdles, which was a hugely popular event ten years ago, has seen its talent pool dwindle over the years. This development is nothing short of lamentable.
In recent years, Ye Jun has been the only athlete to successfully transition from youth competitions to the senior level. Interestingly, he wasn’t even highly regarded in his early career. It was only after entering the senior division that he steadily solidified his position, eventually becoming the leading figure in China’s hurdling scene.
But for Ye Jun, the pressure and expectations he’s carried these past few years have honestly exceeded his abilities at the time.
I originally thought that although Ye Jun’s strength might develop further, the degree of improvement might be limited.
But after the last World Championships and this Japan Indoor Invitational, I must say I completely take back my previous thoughts.
The athletes our country sent to this Japan invitational were undoubtedly our current hurdles Big Three – a formation that even if someone had told me about in the first half of this year, I probably wouldn’t have been able to believe.
Over all these years, we hurdles enthusiasts have experienced too much hope and disappointment. When it comes to new talents in this event, everyone has learned to be cautious. Even for someone like Zhou Tianjue, who was personally selected and trained by the legendary Lü Fei as Song Chen’s successor, everyone was still in a wait-and-see state before he moved up to the adult group, not to mention someone like Su Zhe who appeared almost like a gift from heaven.
To be honest, when Su Zhe first appeared, I watched his first competition with the mindset of watching something interesting. But it was that live broadcast of the National Championships qualifier that made me feel extremely impressed by his performance – his technique was precise and on point, his rhythm between hurdles was superhuman. If you didn’t know better, it would be hard to imagine he was an athlete without extensive hurdles training background.
However, my initial impression of Su Zhe only went that far. He had talent and growth potential, which made me maintain limited expectations for him.
I never expected that Su Zhe’s growth curve would be this explosive… Not just him, but from the moment he appeared, Zhou Tianjue and Ye Jun also started pushing forward together. The three not only successively reached the World Championships qualifying standards, but even made it to the semifinals simultaneously at the World Championships!
This kind of development was completely beyond what I dared to imagine in the first half of the year!
Su Zhe and Zhou Tianjue, these two who can be called the genius twin stars of hurdles, their performance improvement rates are nearly identical, both showing amazing upward curves. At the same time, Ye Jun, whose progress had once been steady but slow, has accelerated so much in the past six months that his gains rival what would normally take two or three seasons.
One is the explosive rise of prodigies, the other the hard-earned payoff of persistence – both paths have made my heart rise with expectations again. And this time, I truly believe that hope won’t be in vain.
The slump in hurdling has lasted far too long. Now, perhaps, I can finally declare: We’ve entered a brand-new era for the sport!]
Zhao Zhiyong’s impassioned article quickly went viral, resonating deeply with readers.
Just as he said in his article, China’s track and field enthusiasts have waited too long for the resurgence of hurdles.
Ten years… How many decades can a person have in life?
Hurdles, as an event that countless Chinese track and field enthusiasts once poured their passion and youth into, really carries too many people’s feelings.
This time, the victory that Zhou Tianjue, Su Zhe, and Ye Jun achieved in Japan made everyone’s hearts rise with new hope. This might be the beginning of a brand new era!
While domestic sports enthusiasts were getting excited about the arrival of this new hurdles era, in Tokyo, Japan, Su Zhe, who had just finished the 60m hurdles final, was directly invited to Fuji TV’s evening live studio.
In fact, although Su Zhe himself didn’t know, both Fuji TV and the Japan Athletics Association had communicated with the domestic Track and Field Administration Center about the post-match evening interview.
From the Track and Field Administration Center’s perspective, Fuji TV, as a well-known major network in Japan, had excellent standards for news interviews. After reading the interview manuscript communicated in advance, the Administration Center felt that the questions Fuji TV asked and the materials they requested were all appropriate, so they easily agreed to the interview.
During the competition period from December 10th to 13th, Fuji TV had been airing teasers for this interview during breaks, with very eye-catching title: “Shocking! From Idol to Track King – The Dual-Threat Genius Su Zhe Dominates Sprints AND Hurdles!!! December 13th Evening, LIVE on Fuji TV!!!”
The promo included clips from Su Zhe’s first appearance at the Asian Champions Invitational in Japan that sparked discussion, as well as highlights from World Championships. These clips not only showed Su Zhe’s speed and power on the track, but also included stunning close-ups of Su Zhe himself. His striking beautiful face combined with the sharp intensity he showed during competition could absolutely deliver a visual impact to Japanese viewers seeing it for the first time on their TV screens.
The ad campaign worked flawlessly.
Fuji TV’s lottery for live audience seats was completely claimed on the first day the teaser aired. By the time Su Zhe’s car pulled up to the Fuji TV building, crowds of fans lining the streets erupted into excited but somewhat restrained cheers.
“Ah, it’s Su!”
The moment Su Zhe stepped out of the car, the crowd’s excitement nearly boiled over—yet everyone remained within the designated areas, clutching their phones with trembling hands as they filmed him walking from the parking lot into Fuji TV’s studio.
Before getting out of the car, Su Zhe had always thought this so-called Fuji TV interview would be the same nature as the post-race interview from the last Asian Champions Invitational. But the moment he got out of the car, the filming cameras of surrounding fans and citizens, as well as Fuji TV’s cameras, were all pointed at him.
Su Zhe instinctively swept his gaze across the surrounding cameras, finally settling his gaze on Fuji TV’s camera. He nodded slightly at the camera, then began walking toward the building under staff guidance.
The moment his eyes briefly met the crowd, the audience clutched their chests in awe. Once he disappeared inside, their restraint shattered into squeals.
“Ahhh! Athlete Su is even more incredible in person! That face, that aura… it’s even more heart-fluttering than what we saw in ads and broadcasts!”
“He smiled right at me! I swear! How can someone this perfect exist? Wuwuwu, I want to marry him so badly… Waking up to that face every day would be heaven!”*
“Woo, flawless on-screen and even more breathtaking in real life, he must be an angel!”
After the brief interaction with Su Zhe, the audience outside was quickly guided by staff members into the studio’s seating area.
After arriving at the studio, Su Zhe only waited briefly before getting ready to enter the filming area, accompanied by staff and a translator.
The studio had audience seating outside the filming zone, plus a huge TV screen and four seats for the hosts, Su Zhe, and the translator.
The lighting was bright, and the overall setup was clean, elegant, and had a good sense of space design. It was a relatively formal interview environment.
Standing outside the camera range, Su Zhe looked at the setup and made some guesses about the interview style. Up until this point, he still thought this wouldn’t be much different from his past interviews.
When the two late-night talk show hosts entered together, it officially marked the start of the live interview broadcast.
“I’m Ishikawa Yusuke.”
“I’m Yakushiji Kyoko.”
“Tonight, we welcome the athlete from China who has recently captured Japan’s national attention, Su Zhe.”
After the two hosts finished their opening remarks, Su Zhe walked into the studio’s official filming area with the translator’s guidance and exchanged polite nods with both hosts.
After the simple greeting, host Ishikawa Yusuke opened the conversation first. “This is really quite unbelievable. Before today, I had only seen Su on competition footage and Twitter. Just watching those was enough to amaze me with Su’s skills and appearance. Now, with the real Su standing right in front of me, I can hardly believe this is what a real human being looks like!”
Yakushiji Kyoko nodded in agreement, her face showing admiration. “No wonder they call you the ‘Track Fairy’! With this face and talent, you’ve leapt straight out of an anime!”
Su Zhe didn’t understand what the two hosts were saying at first. Only after the translator relayed their words to him did he thank them somewhat embarrassedly for their praise.
After introducing and praising Su Zhe, Ishikawa Yusuke shifted the topic.
“Among the viewers watching this interview right now, there might be many who don’t know much about Su yet. So we’ve prepared a special intro video – ‘The Many Faces of Su Zhe.’ Let’s watch!”
With the translator’s explanation, Su Zhe and the two hosts each took their seats, and the large TV screen began playing video material specially produced by Fuji TV.
Actually, Su Zhe hadn’t expected the TV station to prepare video introduction material. Based on his experience from the post-race interview last time, the interviews with several athletes were just a few brief sentences, and the introduction footage was all taken from the competition venue.
Curious about what material Fuji TV had chosen, Su Zhe also focused his attention on the big screen.
The video opened with footage of Su Zhe’s stage performances from his idol days. This performance video was from before he became a meme and got blacklisted across the internet. At that time, although he had been through the training of talent shows, his stage presence in real performances was still lacking, so when the cameras captured him, they mostly chose direct close-ups of his face.
The studio audience gasped (“Woo!”) as the screen filled with close-ups of his striking features.
There wasn’t much footage from this period. After a few mixed cuts of stage performances, the timeline quickly moved to this year, showing material from when Su Zhe started participating in various competitions.
The first part of the material was provided by China’s Track and Field Administration Center. This video footage mainly showed Su Zhe’s strength on the track, displaying his sense of speed in these videos.
Then, the footage moved to the Asian Champions Invitational period. The Japanese people’s pursuit of beauty was fully displayed in this competition footage.
Su Zhe only knew that during competitions, to fully show the intense competition between athletes and capture excellent live footage, there would be rail cams and cranes to capture dynamic race angles. But he hadn’t expected that in Japanese competitions, there would also be situations where cameras followed individual athletes for multi-angle close-up shots.
If not for the stadium backdrop, he’d have sworn this was a high-end commercial.
Fuji TV’s editors not only showed the intensity of the competition but also balanced the visual beauty. Their skills were truly impressive.
Just as the introduction video was reaching its end, the screen suddenly showed footage from Su Zhe’s competition two days ago when he got dazed after hitting the foam wall. His slightly confused and bewildered expression was completely different from the calm or sharp image shown in the first half. Not only did the video capture the audience’s “kawaii” praise, but the studio audience also quietly called out “Kawaii!”
Seeing his own confused look, Su Zhe’s ears turned slightly red. Actually, as a child, because he looked too cute, he was often mistaken for a girl. Even his mother had mischievously taken photos of him as a child wearing a traditional Chinese dress2. Back then, with his little hair buns and innocent expression, his mom had even posted those photos online. Fortunately, no one knew those were his childhood pictures.
Anyway, as he grew up, he toned down any “cute” qualities he might have had. Even when he first debuted in the entertainment industry, the company positioned him as the cold, aloof type and didn’t push him to act cute for business.
So even Su Zhe rarely saw himself looking this adorable, and he couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed.
But the video wasn’t done. A screenshot from Zhou Tianjue’s Weibo was also included in the video, showing him napping on the bus. And as the final devastating blow, there was something Su Zhe never could have imagined, his childhood cross-dressing photos from his dark history.
The moment the photo appeared, boom! Su Zhe’s composure exploded in his mind. He barely maintained a strained smile as his soul left his body.
Why does Fuji TV have these?!
My childhood blackmail material is being broadcast nationally. What do I do?! HELP!!3
As the video ended with this “blooper reel,” both Ishikawa Yusuke and Yakushiji Kyoko showed friendly and amused smiles after seeing the final footage.
Ishikawa Yusuke was first to explain the origin of that last photo. “Ah, Su’s many sides are truly dazzling! But speaking of that last adorable photo, we have to thank his father. When we asked the Chinese side to provide some unique image materials of Su, his father remembered this photo and generously provided it for our use. We’re really very grateful!”
After hearing the translator’s explanation, Su Zhe smiled awkwardly while mentally subjecting his old man to every possible form of beating, frying, boiling, and cooking. He could almost imagine his dad’s thought process, Of course. ‘Unusual footage’? Oh, just my son’s girliest childhood photo!
Su Zhe could only be thankful that this program was broadcast within Japan, so probably no one back home would notice it.
With the “Many Faces of Su Zhe” showcase over, the program finally entered the normal interview segment. After surviving the childhood photo trauma, Su Zhe now had strong immunity and resistance to the rainbow farts the hosts occasionally threw out during their interview questions.
For example, “Su, you’ve been competing officially for a very short time, but you’ve already achieved great success. In less than a year, you’ve already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Do you have any expectations for your performance at the Olympics?”
Or, “Ah, Su, both your beauty and strength are amazingly powerful. Japan’s famous sports commentator Ishida Ippei really loves you. He’s called you the ‘Beautiful Snow Leopard Prince’ and ‘Track Fairy.’ Do you think these titles fit your image? Or how do you see yourself as an athlete?”
There were also questions like “After becoming an athlete, you sacrificed your idol career. Do you feel any regret?” and “What’s your daily life like after becoming an athlete?”
The entire interview program lasted about 30 minutes. Aside from the childhood photo nuke and occasional cringe-worthy praise, everything else was indeed as Su Zhe had guessed, a very normal interview program.
During the program, Su Zhe also learned for the first time that he already had so many embarrassing nicknames.
With a strong business mindset, Su Zhe finally completed the entire live program recording.
And while he breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t realize that his childhood dark history was already spreading like wildfire across Chinese social media…
Author’s Note:
Strange Conversation Time
Su Zhe: 0.0 Boss, what are you looking at???
Boss Shao: (Calmly and quickly exits someone’s childhood photos on his phone and switches to Weibo) Nothing, just came across an article discussing you and your teammates…
Su Zhe: 0.0 Oh, really? Let me take a look too!
Boss Shao: (Ears turning red) Cough, o-okay.
(In the distance, Caicai, who witnessed everything, shows a knowing, motherly smile =w=)
Footnotes
- I only learned a bit of news writing back in Grade 6 when I joined our school paper. I gave up after three months and switched to Home Economics because I couldn’t write news to save my life. (My writing was so bad, my Journalism advisor literally told me to switch so my grades wouldn’t tank lol.) So yeah, please don’t expect this to read like a proper editorial. I just translated what’s in the raws as-is, without trying to make it sound like polished news copy in English.
- He's wearing a duijin qixiongqun (对襟齐胸裙), a style of traditional Hanfu where the skirt is tied above the chest (like an empire waist) and the top has a front opening. Just Google “齐胸襦裙 hanfu” to see what it looks like!
- 在线等，很着急 literally means 'Waiting online, very anxious/urgent.' It's internet slang people use when they want a quick reply, like urgently refreshing the page for answers. Think 'HELP NEEDED ASAP!' or 'Freaking out, someone respond!!'
I feel like it’s a word vomit and makes me want to skip reading that wall of texts hahaha. Does it look better when I put the articles in italics? Please let me know.
I think the italics work great for distinguishing the article from regular narration! Thank you as always for your translation 🙂 This is such a unique story!