Arthur Zeng: A life aquatic

This is the time of year when it’s so hot that “go soak your head” is not an insult but a good idea. As president of the LGBT+ swim club The Fins Aquatic Club, Arthur Zeng suggests you come soak not just your head but the rest of you as well.

PGN: How did you originally get involved in swimming?

AZ: I grew up swimming. I grew up in China and I started swimming when I was 5 or 6 years old. I don’t remember it but my mom told me that the way I learned to swim was when a big dog chased me into a pool. That may be a myth, but that’s what she told me.

PGN: I’ll go with that; it sounds dramatic.

AZ: Yeah, and I swam in middle and high school on the school teams. In college I did a little bit of intramural swimming, so I’ve kind of been swimming all my life.

PGN: That’s cool. What brought you to the States?

AZ: I went to grad school at UC Irvine in California for six years. I moved to Philly about four years ago and I didn’t know anybody. But I wanted to swim, so I Googled “swim team Philadelphia” and I found The Fins. [Laughing] I thought, I like to swim and I’m gay … This is perfect! 

PGN: Describe the place where you grew up.

AZ: It was a small town named Chengdu — small by China’s standards. If you like spicy foods, you think about Chengdu. I always tell people that it’s the place where pandas come from. Like the majority of people there, I grew up in a condo that was owned by my dad’s company. It was for employees, you paid for it, but at a discounted price. So most of the people I knew growing up were all kids of people who worked for the bank. But I kind of kept to myself. I was a little bit shy.                                                   

PGN: Are your parents still in China?

AZ: Yes, I joke that I keep moving farther and farther away from home. I did my undergrad in Beijing, which is on the other side of the country, then California for my Ph.D. and now the East Coast. If I keep going, I’ll be back in China! But they come to visit once in a while. They were here last year.

PGN: What did you get your master’s in?

AZ: Chemistry. I work as a chemist for a coating company, as in paint. We make all sorts, but specialize in coatings for automobiles. I try to discover ways to make them look brighter and shinier with less corrosion as the years pass. It’s funny — in grad school I was studying polymers for gene therapy. I joke that I used to study stuff that cured cancer, now I’m working with stuff that causes cancer. But actually that’s something we’re working on too — how to reduce the toxicity of the coatings.

PGN: What’s a fun family tradition?

AZ: My family is not really religious, but most of the country is Buddhist, so we’d go to temple on occasion. We didn’t really practice it, but we’d go during big holidays to pay and pray — I guess like some Catholics who only go for the special services.

PGN: What was surprising when you came to the States?

AZ: Well, I flew into California and didn’t know anybody or how to get anywhere. The public transportation there is terrible, so when the plane landed, I contacted the Chinese Student Association. They were really nice and picked me up at the airport and drove me to a Chinese grocery, but part of me was like, uh, am I actually in the U.S.? Because everyone around me is speaking Chinese, all the signs are Chinese and I’m in a Chinese grocery store. But of course, once I started school, that changed. What was a big shock for me was how much people consume here: food, energy, everything. The weather there was so pleasant, yet everyone was freezing because the AC was so high in the buildings. I went into an office in the chemistry department and the secretary was sitting there with a space heater on. It was 95 degrees outside, but she was freezing. It was crazy. I was like, Oh wow, this is how people use energy in the U.S.

PGN: What are some of the things we don’t know about China?

AZ: I think people often relate the country to the ideology — like our political system is not very good, it’s not democratic, but most of the people are not part of the political system. We’re all individuals with our own way of thinking. We’re not all into communism.

PGN: I think we also have a romanticized version of China in our heads with mountains and huts and quiet little streams that we see in paintings, but you’re like, “Nope, I grew up in a condo.”

AZ: [Laughing] Yes, I mean you have to go out of the cities to the countryside and you can still see that, but for the most part, in the cities it’s just like New York or London. The lifestyle is pretty much the same as here in Philly. All the big cities are so globalized, there’s not a lot of difference.

PGN: When did you come out?

AZ: In high school, I started to realize that I was attracted to guys. I’ve heard stories about people struggling to accept it, but not me. I was like, So I’m gay, no big deal. In my hometown, it was still taboo — not for any religious reason, just socially taboo — so people don’t talk about it. I came out in college. I would have done it sooner, but my parents were so far away and I didn’t want to do it on the phone, so I had to wait for them to visit. They weren’t exactly cheering about it, but they were OK. And they’re getting better all the time about it.

PGN: Tell me a little about The Fins.

AZ: This is our 30th anniversary. We started in 1988 as an LGBT swim club because at the time, out LGBT athletes were not allowed on other sports teams. Things have changed over the years and we’re now the only master swim team in the city. We have LGBT members on the team along with straight allies. Right now, it’s about 50/50. As far as levels, we go from people who have national records to folks just wanting to swim for fitness. [Laughing] I’m kind of in between.

PGN: All men or co-ed?

AZ: We have both men and women and we had a transwoman, but I don’t think she’s there anymore. We really want to open up to embrace everyone: all levels, all genders, all nationalities. I’m from China, and we have a swimmer from the Middle East and I just got a call from a refugee from Morocco who wants to try out.

PGN: I think if I were a swimmer, the most nerve-wracking part would be waiting for the starting pistol. I’d be terrified that I’d jump the gun.

AZ: Oh yeah, I’ve done that but it was when I was in high school and they give you a second chance, so it wasn’t so bad. Now I think it’s once and you’re disqualified.

PGN: What’s the coldest you’ve ever been?

AZ: That would be here in Philly. In Chengdu I think it only snowed about three times in my 18 years there, and then I was in Southern California. When I moved here, I remember the first time it went to zero degrees. I was like, What? I have zero concept of what zero means.

PGN: Who was your first boyfriend?

AZ: The first serious relationship was with another grad student. We lived together for about five years before we broke up. But that was a while back. Now I’m engaged.

PGN: Congratulations!

AZ: Yeah, it was last fall. My fiancé Alan was hiking the Appalachian trail for six months. I met him about 10 times at different points in his journey. He started off at Springer Mountain in Georgia and ended on Mount Katahdin in Maine. He proposed to me at the end of the trail at the top of the peak. [Laughing] It was really cold, and I kept asking to leave. He made me sit down on a rock away from the wind but it didn’t help. We were cold and shivering and I didn’t know why he didn’t want to leave. Then he pulled out a ring and proposed. There were two hikers that he’d met who took pictures and we look miserable in the shots, but I cried and said yes!

PGN: How did you and Alan meet?

AZ: He’s not a swimmer, but I met him through swimming at one of our social events. We were doing line dancing at a fundraiser and he was part of the line-dancing group. He asked me to dance and that’s how we met.

PGN: So he swept you off your feet!

AZ: Yes, he did. 

For more information about the Philadelphia Fins, visit www.philadelphiafins.org.

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