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Survey: 43.5% accept basketball player’s nationality switch
By Yan Weijue (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-24 16:38
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Former Chinese basketball player Li Shasha has changed her nationaltiy to Japanese and will make her debut for Japan under her new name Risa Kawamura in the Basketball World Championship for Women to be held in Czechoslovakia this September.
A survey organized by 163.com, one of the biggest news portals in China, shows that 43.5 percent say it is understandable as changing nationality is common nowadays. Of the polled, 30.6 percent think it unacceptable, especially when it comes to the Japanese nationality, and 19.58 percent was ambivalent, saying she doesn’t need to change her name, with the remaining 6.2 percent expressing that it is hard to jump to conclusions.
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 Risa Kawamura (Liu Shasha), a former Chinese national women's basketball team member plays during a WCBA game. [File Photo]
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Kawamura, 1.85m and 73kg, was born in northeast China’s Liaoning province. She started playing basketball when she was 4, and made the Chinese national second team in 2001. Then she went abroad to Japan for further study and once came back to China to play in the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA). In 2009, she acquired Japanese citizenship and thus qualifies to represent the country to play in the international competitions.
Kawamura also plays for Chanson V-Magic in Japan’s women’s basketball League. Playing the positions of both center and power forward, she averages 12.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
