Color of Hockey: Lum inspired by playing for China on international stage

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, he profiles PWHL Montreal forward Leah Lum, who played for the Chinese women’s national team at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and in International Ice Hockey Federation competition.

For Leah Lum, it was about hockey and a homecoming.

The 27-year-old forward for PWHL Montreal played in the Chinese Women’s Hockey League and represented China at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“Immersing yourself in the culture, being from Richmond, British Columbia, and being fourth generation Chinese, you kind of grow up in the Canadian Chinese culture,” she said. “But fully immersing yourself into your heritage and into the Chinese culture is an experience that’s just so humbling.”

And emotional.

Lum made a pilgrimage to her family’s ancestral home of Enping in the southwestern part China’s Guangdong province while playing for the national team at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship Division I Group A in Shenzhen, China, in August.

“My aunts and uncles, they had been there before and they had all the details ready for me and helped me out trying to coordinate that stuff,” she said. “I was thankful that my team helped me with a driver who took me out there. I had a translator with me, a photographer came with me as well. I got to see my family’s ancestral village, which was a very, very heartwarming experience. You go there and you try to picture how your family lived.”

Lum said her time in China was “probably, honestly, one of the best four years of my life.”

She played for Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays of the Chinese Women’s Hockey League in 2018-19 and remained with the team when it moved to Russia’s Zhenskaya Hockey League the following season.

She became known by her Chinese name, Lin Qiqi, in the CWHL and with the Chinese women’s national team at IIHF tournaments and the Olympics.

“It was cool seeing my Chinese teammates for the first time and growing with them over the four years and going to the Olympics with them,” Lum said. “Off the ice, it was so cool. We’d go to practice, we’d come out, we’d go explore the town, go grab some bubble tea, some noodles, all the Chinese delicacies.”

Lum led China at the Beijing Olympics with four points (two goals, two assists) in four games. She helped China win a gold medal at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship Division I Group B in Katowice, Poland, with seven goals in five games, which tied her for the tournament lead. She was also the co-leader in points with 15 (eight assists).

She represented China again in the 2023 women’s worlds and had two points (one goal, one assist) in five games.

Though Lum enjoyed success on the ice for China, she had to overcome some barriers away from the rink, mainly the language.

“I basically went over to China that first year out of college, and didn’t know too much,” she said. “And in Richmond, B.C., they speak Cantonese and when I went over there, they speak Mandarin, completely different dialects.

“I was, like, ‘Shoot, I’ve got to restart again,’” Lum said. “My Chinese teammates, they were so helpful. That first year and I believe the second year, I did a little Chinese school … I can count numbers, do all the basic things, but forming sentences and trying to have a full conversation, I can’t do that.”

Lum said she went to China in search of something different after playing four seasons at the University of Connecticut, where she had 102 points (42 goals, 60 assists) in 148 games in four seasons.

“I knew a couple of people who had gone (to play overseas) in my senior year and I had been in touch with them,” she said.

About the same time Digit Murphy, a former coach and executive for Toronto and the Metropolitan Riveters of the Premier Hockey Federation and a former coach of Brown University’s women’s team, was coaching the Chinese women’s program and reached out to Lum.

“She had been in contact with me, and she said, ‘Hey, listen, this is going to be something that you want to do,’” Lum said. “ 'They want to lead up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, it’s kind of perfect timing, you’re just coming out of college.’ "

Lum said: “I knew I wanted to continue playing. Before I knew KRS was a thing, I had teammates going over to Europe, going over to Sweden and whatnot. I had been in touch with them, trying to figure out my next step. And KRS happened ... It all fell in place perfectly for me, and I am grateful for that.”

Lum returned to North America and played for Toronto of the PHF in 2022-23. She had 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in 24 games for Toronto, which won the PHF’s Isobel Cup in the league’s final season.

She signed with PWHL Montreal as an undrafted free agent and has four points (one goal, three assists) in 22 games in the professional women’s league’s inaugural season.

Lum said she hopes her play for Montreal and internationally inspires Asian children to play hockey.

“Every game in warmup, I try my best to pinpoint some people in the crowd and throw pucks at them,” she said. “It’s awesome to see how much the game has grown. In China, in the four years I was there, the growth of the game over there was tremendous. It’s such a positive to see it’s branching out this way. It’s our job to play the game, but it’s also our job off the ice to grow it as well.”