Profile | Liu Qingyi: China’s breaking prodigy aiming to make more history at Paris Olympics
When 17-year-old Chinese breakdancer Liu Qingyi beat her Japanese competitor last October, not only did she pocket the first women’s gold medal ever in breakdancing at the Asian Games, she also qualified directly for the Paris Olympics.
Born in 2005 in Huixian City of central Henan province, Liu, whose nickname is B-Girl 671, is one of the country’s young, hungry talents, and sits in the higher echelon of the female breakdancing world.
Her athletic advancement has been just as impactful and ferocious as her dance style.
It took her only six years to claim the country-level breaking competition at the China Games and then earn a spot on the national breakdancing training team in 2021, after first taking up the sport at the tender age of 10.
Less than a year later she started professional training at Team China and proved her world-class calibre in international competitions, which included victorious trips to Europe in 2022.
“China has carved out a place for itself on the global map of breakdancing,” said Max Oliveira, a veteran who presented the global breaking tournament Outbreak Europe in August 2022, when Liu claimed her first European solo B-Girl battle in Slovakia.
She came on top in a field of 124 female breakers and became the first Chinese B-Girl to win a world championship.
Her unstoppable performance, which featured some powerful signature moves was considered to have set a new bar for young, female breakers.
Just a month later, she won a back-to-back championship in Portugal at the 2022 World Battle, defeating another tough line-up to take the solo B-Girl title.
“Now everyone knows 671,” Oliveira was quoted as saying by Chinese state media. “She has proven herself to be one of the best female break dancers on this planet. Her emergence has even influenced many other break dancers, and she is still very young.
“I believe that in the future, she will undoubtedly be the most competitive player in this field and will be able to raise the level of women’s breakdancing to a new height.”
Liu’s two consecutive championship wins at major European competitions arguably established her as China’s top breaking prospect. However, it has not always been plain sailing for the young B-Girl.
Her debut abroad was to compete in the 2021 World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) World Breaking Championship in Paris in December 2021, where she finished ninth.
It was the largest and highest-level breakdancing event since the International Olympic Committee confirmed it would be on the Paris roster in December 2020.
“I won’t give up. I’ll go back, train hard, and come back again,” she said afterwards.
In October 2022, Liu did come back and won the silver medal at the World Breakdancing Championship in Seoul, securing China’s first medal in the event’s history.
High-difficulty technical moves have always been her trump card, but Liu wanted to bring something fresh to the audience each time she stepped onto the dance floor, to be seen as “more than just a B-Girl who does dance techniques”, she said earlier this year.
“Of course, the audience loves to see difficult moves, but the best street dancers showcase their style and innovation on top of that difficulty. Through their dance, you can see what kind of person they are and what kind of life state they are in.”
She realised she had neglected the cultural essence of the dance after three-to-four years of training, and her breaking teacher taught her, not just the dance, but the hip-hop culture it came from, which led her to “find her own style”, she said in an interview with Red Bull BC One.
With the guidance of an international coaching set-up at Team China, she worked on her weaknesses in understanding music and display a personal style.
“When I compete, I want people to know my style and who I am as B-Girl 671,” she said.
She also intentionally integrated Chinese elements into her choreography in performances.
“Dance is not about routines, but an abstract concept,” she said at the time. “We need to incorporate our own Chinese elements into dance so that we can better showcase the Chinese style and the charm of Chinese dancers.”
With her remarkable entry into the international competition circuit, she earned a wild-card spot in the top 16 of the Red Bull BC One World Final 2022 a month later, making it to the competition’s semi-finals as the first Chinese B-Girl to compete in the largest global breaking competition.
“A B-Girl with an explosive style,” as introduced by the organiser, Liu solidified her status as one of the top athletes in her return to the Red Bull BC One World Final in 2023, by reaching the final battle against Japanese B-Girl Ami Yuasa, who reigned supreme that night.
It was not the first time the pair had gone head-to-head for the top prizes, battling it out for the gold and silver. Liu lost to Ami in the Seoul World Breakdancing Championship a year earlier, but at the Asian Games last year, she won the gold medal with a score of 2-1 in a tense final with her world-champion rival.
Liu clinched two championships last year in the WDSF Breaking for Gold World Series, in February in Kitakyushu, Japan, beating Ami, and in May at the French station.
But in April’s event in Brazil, she settled for second place after losing to Ami.
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