Ice dancers Hannah Lim and Ye Quan have represented South Korea for three seasons now, and Lim has South Korean citizenship through her parents. But this week’s ISU Four Continents marks the first time Quan will compete internationally as a citizen of South Korea. It seems particularly fitting, then, that the event takes place in Seoul, capital of his new adopted home country.
Lim and Quan were both residents and citizens of Canada when they originally teamed up in 2019. But both had ties to other countries: Lim’s parents emigrated to Canada from South Korea, and Quan’s mother came from China. (Quan’s father is Canadian, and the skater himself was born in Iceland.) Eventually the duo elected to represent South Korea, a decision they did not make lightly.
At Skate Canada in October, Lim and Quan talked with reporters about their choice to represent South Korea and Quan’s journey to citizenship.
Getting their start in Canada
Lim: We did our first two years here in Canada. After covid-19, we switched to South Korea.
Quan: We were at the [Canadian] junior national level. We never went international for Canada.
Lim: We were always within the top five in Canada for juniors [at 2020 Canadian Nationals and 2021 Skate Canada Challenge].
Switching to South Korea
Lim: My dad and my mom are Korean [born in South Korea]. They mostly spoke Korean at home. So I got the language from when I was young. They were just saying, ‘What if you skated for Korea?’ I realized, if my parents asked–it’s not like I have to do it, but I was thinking how they gave so much to me.
Quan: And it was also your culture.
Lim: Yes. They gave so much to me, in my sport. And I thought, ‘This is a way to give back to them.’ I just really wanted [to give] that kind of gift, without giving them physical money, because they put all their money in the sport. I wanted to show that appreciation for my parents as a way of representing Korea.
Quan: At first, it was a hard decision for us. Because my mom is from a Chinese background, and we didn’t have a lot of connection to Korea. So for me, it was an unknown ground, I can say. But I also understand that, as an ice dancer, we often have to choose different nationalities, because we cannot skate alone in ice dance. We have to be a team, right? So at first, it was a hard decision. But we discussed it a lot, and we decided, why not try it and see how it goes? So then I switched to Korea.
Lim: Ye was really open to the idea. He’s not a stubborn person at all, so it’s easy to work with him. And I really appreciate that he endured a bunch of hardships by switching nationalities. He was so open to it, and we’ve been working really well together since then.
Working toward South Korean citizenship
Lim: I had my citizenship through my parents. But he–
Quan: For me, I have Canadian [citizenship], and I’m currently working on getting my Korean citizenship. We’re almost there. I already passed my interview during the summer. The interviewers were very nice to me. But it was really stressful, because I had to sing the national anthem and say everything in Korean. So I was shaking a lot. [Laughs sheepishly]
Lim: Before the interview, our breaks during training were all Korean lessons in the car. Driving to workouts, it was Korean songs or Korean podcasts. And watching Korean dramas at home.
Quan: Oh, yes. I was so tired [from] that. I took a lot of private lessons to try to cram in as much as I could. Because normally for citizenship, you have five years. You have to live five years in [South] Korea, and then you have a chance for citizenship. I applied maybe a year and a half ago. They managed to make it an exceptional case, because we are athletes, and we are currently training in Montreal. The process went pretty quickly, because of our sports situation. But I had a lot less time [than usual] to learn the language and the culture. We worked hard on that.
Mandarin [Chinese] is actually my first language. There are some links between the pronunciations [of Mandarin and Korean]. Some words are similar. But mostly, it’s pretty far [apart]. Korean language is mostly about the symbols. You have to learn the alphabet first, and then you can write. In Chinese, you have to understand the meaning of the strokes, and it’s a different system for writing and speaking. So, some of the pronunciation was hard for me at first. Hannah always says I have a Chinese accent when I speak [Korean].
Lim: The Korean alphabet is kind of like the English alphabet, where you see a letter, and it makes a certain sound. And you just attach the letters together, and it makes a word.
Quan: It psychologically makes more sense. If it were the opposite, and I had to learn Chinese from scratch, that would be a lot harder.
Final steps
Quan: They seem positive that I should be able to get citizenship around December, maybe January. Hopefully.
Lim: So we’ll be ready for the 2026 Olympics. We have an athlete’s citizenship; athlete’s passport. So he’s allowed to keep his Canadian citizenship as well.
Quan: Yes, I’m allowed to have double citizenship.
