Katherine Wu is a talented young woman — a neuroscience graduate, a zither player and a beauty queen.

At the Modern Pentathlon Center Equestrian Arena, one of the Chengdu World University Games venues, the 23-year-old Chinese-American athlete is also an archer, competing for the glory of her nation.

In the recurve women's individual knockout, Wu was beaten by China's Li Xinxin 6-0, but she did not burden herself with too much pressure.

"Of course, I want to win a gold medal like other competitors, but as long as I do my best, I will be satisfied," she said.

Wu had already established a friendship with her opponent before their battle.

"When Xinxin knew she would face me in the competition, she joked with me, saying 'Oh, no! It is you!' We did not know each other before the games, but the event has made us friends," she said.

Wu started learning archery at age 13 when her interest was piqued by the movie The Hunger Games.

"There is no archery major at my university, so I had to train myself. I have a coach in San Francisco, but my university is in Texas. I traveled during the summer and winter holidays for training," she said.

"It was a bit busy for me, but I like traveling," she added. "At school, I trained for three to four hours a day on average, but in the past two months, I trained for eight hours per day."

Though a US native, Wu can speak fluent Chinese. She attributed her language ability to her parents' foresight to cultivate her to be bilingual.

"I studied at a Sino-US international school from first grade to eighth grade. My parents always told me how important it was to learn Chinese. I believe language can help me connect with different cultures," Wu said.

Her parents and elder sister were all born in the United States, but her paternal and maternal grandfathers are from Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, respectively.

Her parents and sister also traveled with her, cheering her on during the competition and enjoying Chengdu during their free time.

"After the competition, I will go see pandas and taste local spicy food with my parents and sister," Wu said.

In her view, Chengdu is a modern city filled with traditional Chinese culture.

"I am always fascinated by Chinese culture. I learned guzheng (the Chinese plucked zither), Chinese dancing and ancient poems during my childhood. Playing guzheng and wearing cheongsam helped me win a beauty contest for Chinese Americans," said Wu, who was crowned the 2019 Miss Chinatown USA.

Wu graduated as a neuroscience major from Rice University. She believes her hobby and future career can be integrated perfectly.

"This year, I will still focus on practicing archery. But in the long term, I may choose to be a doctor. Archery training helps me understand human's physical structure, which will make me a better doctor," Wu added.