Promise of the Future Chinese Women’s Competitive Swimmers: The Legacy of the China Mermaid Sau-King Yeung Alexander K. Yeung Copyright Copyright © 2024 by Alexander Yeung All rights reserved. All the images and contents of this publication cannot be copied, reprinted, transmitted, and stored in any forms and means. The use of short quotations is permitted only when the book and the pages quoted are cited and acknowledged. Prologue “I am only the promise of what China is going to do in the future.” My 17-year-old aunt Sau-King Yeung, the first woman representing China in women ’s swimming to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, told an English reporter of the Hong Kong South China Morning Post in July 1936. Later in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, four Chinese women’s competitive swimmers first delivered my aunt’s promise. Zhuang Yong won silver in the 100 meters freestyle. Yang Wenyi won silver in the 50 meters freestyle. Huang Xiaomin won silver in the 200 meters breaststroke. Qian