As an aside to the last comment from the quoted poster RE drug use: not in figure skating, but clearly, you haven't seen the Chinese lady weightlifters. Would give the mighty "ladies" of old East Germany a run for their money. That's for a different forum however....
There are enough of very high profile drug uses and proven Olympic cheats from finger pointing nations. I don't want to get into these or make this more political than it is already. Sometimes people forget they live in glass houses.
For interest, while Western Calendar has numbered years and named months, the Chinese calendar has named years and numbered months. The years' names are derived from ancient word sequences that modern and uneducated Chinese are unfamiliar with so these names are just to be memorized.
Also for interest, in the West, a birthday is supposed to mark the day someone has fully lived another year, to be added to his/her age. But it is really the day before the birth anniversay that marks such an event. A person does not turn 21 on his 21st birthday; he did it the day before. He is in his 22nd year on the 21st birthday. Anyway, I'm not accusing anybody of lying on their birthdays.
Japan and China seem to produce top skaters in different fields. While Japan dominates in Singles, China has been the strongest in Pairs and now seems to have some Dancers appearing near the top as well. It may have more to do with coaching. While the Chinese figure skating pioneer is World Champion Lu Chen, it's the determination of a pair skater without high personal achievements who caltivated the high level of pair skating in China.
OTOH, the Japanese have been riding the waves of their initial and current superstars in Singles. I seriously doubt finding hefty men for Pairs is a problem for Japan, even though the curent top Japanese Men are relatively small. It's up to the Japanese Federation to set its priorities. Different nations just have different emphasis. The Americans, e.g., are most interested in their Ladies.
It is interesting there are so many brother/sister teams in Dance which often involve romantic programs but no such pair teams, due, no doubt, to siblings usually having similar sizes, lacking the discrepency advantageous for pairs. However, sibling teams do have the advantages of more stable relationships, easier scheduling, and a more reliable size expectation when young.
The current top Japanese pair includes a Canadian, Tran, so something has to be resolved for the next Olympic. Japanese don't give up their citizenships easily, which says a lot about the ambition and detemination of Kavaguti, whom Japan lost to Russia.
Why Japan has not gone more seriously into ice dance has been a mystery to me for some time..The problem in pairs ( difficulty in finding hefty enough men) I can sort of see, but ice dance ,one would think , should not be as problematic. They've had no reservations about sending other athletes abroad , so ... I don't get it.
