Oh really? Sounds like fs is picking up in some parts of China then. Is fs lessons expensive there? I agree that with lack of affordable coaches, it is unlikely any talented kid will be spotted and encouraged to take up fs seriously. Maybe China can pay a highly sought after coach and choreographer from USA, Canada, Europe
and Russia to train the coaches? They can learn from countries with a rich tradition in skating.
I think figure skating for a long time to come will be primarily a northern-based sport as it's always been. And definitely at the competitive rather than recreational level. Yes, lessons are relatively expensive relative to local incomes. Accessing ice is not easy. There is a shortage of full size ice rinks. Most rinks are smaller and in shopping malls with shopping mall hours, and are not conducive to meaningful training. Beijing, the country capital and official location of the national team, has similar climatic conditions to Chicago, USA (drier though). With an urban population 5-6 times that of Chicago, you can count the number of full sheets of year-round indoor ice
all on one hand, and at least 2 of those sheets are essentially restricted to a small number of designated skaters/coaches for national elite team training. Compare that with...innumerable rinks are in greater metro Chicago that are available to general public or at least skating club members for training sessions.
IMO, one of the biggest problems after ice access is lack of good basic skills/elementary level coaches as well as mid-level and elite singles coaches. I've watched lower level sessions where you have skaters working on anything from crossovers to basic spins and single jumps, and a critical mass of decent coaches that can nip bad habits in the bud, just isn't there yet. At the higher level of skating, there is a lack of good native choreography and packaging that works with international judges. Only the skaters/teams that have made a splash internationally have possible access to top level international choreo, which tends to make the difference between the Chinese that win intl medals vs the also-rans. Yes, the Chinese could learn a lot from importing some talent from abroad, but so far there is a reluctance to do that for levels under elite or nearly-elite skaters. It also may be an issue of finding willing imported talent to come to China for a meaningful period of time (or semi-permanently). There are some quality of life issues that most foreigners would not be willing to put up with for more than a couple of years or so, even with a sweetened financial pot. Of course you can send skaters abroad and that has been done for short periods of time---but that doesn't build up the country's innate skating capacity.
While there may be a problem of money at the individual skater/family level, there shouldn't be a problem of money at the institutional level--unlike some countries, there is plenty of money sloshing around this economy--not just government, but private--that could be tapped to build and operate rinks, find (even import) coaches and pay for improvements in coaching skills (sending them abroad for professional skills development), and improve access to a wider group of youngsters. But it takes an entity to pull it all together, tap into resources and organize everything. Logically that would be the National Skating Federation, but no indication that they are empowered to do so, or willing to do so even if empowered, or have the internal talent/management to do so even if empowered and willing.
FS isn't really that popular in China.
Across the overall population and land mass of China, no, figure skating is not that popular. But in a country of 1.4 billion people, even 1% serious interest level (fans, spectators, etc.) is 14 million people! That's equivalent to 40% of entire population of Canada!
