Fu Yuanhui Talks About a Taboo

The Chinese swimmer, Fu Yuanhui, won the internet when she talked about a forbidden subject on televsion. After completing her race, the swimmer was clutching her side during the post-race interview.

Yuanhui had just completed the 4x100 meter medley relay finishing in fourth place on Sunday, the interviewer had to ask if she was OK.

Fu stated, in Mandarin, that she felt she could have done better and let her teammates down, all because she was on her period. Not using it as an excuse, but the reality is that the period made her feel exhausted and weak.

Even though Fu didn’t win the relay, she comment about her period made her famous online. Many admirers felt they could relate and commended her for being so candid about such a taboo subject. Thus, opening up the subject for debate and hopefulling educating many who grew up in China, where many still  believe tampons will take your virinity. Maybe this will break the cycle and allow female athelete to be more open.

The name Fu is both a masculine and femine name, that comes from the Chinese language. The word Fu has many different characters with different meanings – Fu can mean “abundant, rich and wealthy,” “hibiscus or lotus” or “begin, man, and father” depending on how it’s pronounced.

One of the first famous people with this name was the poet Du Fu, who was from the 8^th century Tang dynasty. Nowadays, it is a common name for Chinese people around the world.