Early Years
Li Jiawei, the only daughter of a government official and a housewife, was born on 9 August 1981 in Beijing, People's Republic of China. In 1990, Li was a student at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School. She then entered the Beijing provincial team in 1994. Her skill in table tennis was recognized by Singaporean talent scouts and she was invited to train in Singapore under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in 1996, returning to China once a year to visit her parents. She began representing Singapore internationally in competitive table tennis the following year. At 18, she became a Singapore citizen.
Read more about this topic: Li Jiawei
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“Women who marry early are often overly enamored of the kind of man who looks great in wedding pictures and passes the maid of honor his telephone number.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Today, almost forty years later, I grow dizzy when I recall that the number of manufactured tanks seems to have been more important to me than the vanished victims of racism.”
—Albert Speer (1905–1981)