Beyond the Game: Sport Management Professor Zikun Li reflects on American sports, education and the meaning of success across cultures

I did not come to America because I had nothing. I came because I believed there could be more.

An Era of Optimism

I was born in 1992 in Datong, a historic city in northern China’s Shanxi Province, during an extraordinary period of economic transformation. My father was among a generation of entrepreneurs who embraced the opportunities created by China’s Reform and Opening-Up policies, introduced under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. He started his own business in the early 1990s, and his business success gave our family a comfortable life. Growing up, I witnessed firsthand how economic opportunity could change a family’s circumstances and expand the possibilities available to the next generation.

It was an era of optimism. China was developing rapidly, and for many families like mine, America stood as a beacon of what the future might hold. We admired its economic prosperity, world-class universities, technological innovation, and the promise that ambition and hard work could lead to success.

Pursuing an American Education

For my generation, pursuing an American education was more than an academic aspiration. It represented the possibility of becoming something greater than we had imagined.

My journey beyond mainland China began during my junior year at Beijing Sport University, when I had the opportunity to spend a semester as an exchange student in Taiwan. That experience broadened my horizons, sparked my curiosity about the wider world, and inspired me to explore opportunities beyond the familiar. In 2014, at the age of 22, I arrived at the University of Michigan to pursue my master’s degree.

At UMich, I was astonished by the passion surrounding college football, where more than 100,000 fans could gather on a Saturday to celebrate something that seemed almost sacred. As a sport management student, I began to understand how deeply sport was woven into American communities and identities, and how collegiate sport was an integral part of campus life and university culture.

Yet my most important discovery had little to do with football or even academics. It was a different way of understanding success.

Reflecting on the Meaning of Success Across Cultures

Growing up in a highly competitive environment, I had become accustomed to measuring my achievements against those of others. Success often meant outperforming your peers and meeting expectations set by family and society. America offered me a different perspective. Coming from a different cultural background, I found myself surrounded by people from diverse walks of life, each pursuing their own aspirations and moving through life at their own pace. Witnessing these different paths broadened my understanding of what success could look like. I gradually stopped asking whether I was doing better than others and began asking whether I was becoming the person I wanted to be.

That shift was liberating. I came to appreciate a society where individual aspirations could take many forms, where people from different backgrounds could pursue their own definitions of success. To me, this openness was among America’s greatest strengths.

Putting Down Roots

My academic journey eventually brought me to George Mason University, where I pursued my doctorate with the support of a scholarship. Along the way, I met my husband, an American from Tennessee. As we began envisioning a future together, the United States gradually became more than a place where I had come to study. It became the place where I wanted to build a life and put down roots.

Today, I serve as an assistant professor of sport management at Mount St. Mary’s University. Becoming a professor was the ambition that motivated years of academic study and achieving that goal has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Through teaching, scholarship, and mentoring, I am now an active participant in the American academic community, helping prepare the next generation of professionals while continuing to pursue my own intellectual interests.

My experiences have strengthened my belief in the values that make America exceptional: openness to talent and potential, respect for individual ambition, economic freedom, and a commitment to creating opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to pursue their aspirations and shape their own futures. These ideals may not always be fully realized, but my own experiences have shown me how they can open doors and empower individuals to pursue their aspirations.

The Next Chapter

Immigration, however, comes with a lingering sense of cultural distance. I carry with me a cultural identity shaped by my upbringing in China, along with memories, traditions, and relationships that remain an inseparable part of who I am. Even after twelve years in America, there are moments when familiar cultural references and unspoken social norms do not come as naturally to me. I have learned to navigate two cultures, embracing my life in America while remaining deeply connected to my Chinese roots.

Over time, I have come to understand that home is not merely where one’s story begins, but also where one chooses to build its next chapters. America has become that home for me – a place where I have pursued my ambitions, embraced new perspectives, and built a future grounded in the values I admire.

My immigration journey is still unfolding. The opportunities I have found here have helped shape who I am, just as my own experiences, perspectives, and contributions have become part of the communities to which I belong. As I look toward the future, I am excited to continue growing my roots in America and contributing to the country I proudly call home.