Yao and his partner Luan Bo were the first team to represent China at the World Figure Skating Championships.

In the closed society of mid-20th century China, Luan and Yao had only photographs from which to learn their moves.

After these embarrassing experiences, Yao was determined to create a team of world-class figure skaters.

[8] Wenjing Sui & Cong Han;[9] Peng Cheng & Zhang Hao;[10] Xiaoyu Yu & Yang Jin.

In 2010, Yao's dream came true yet again, when his teams finished 1st, 2nd, and 5th in the 2010 Winter Olympics, while Shen & Zhao also established a new world record for most points scored (76.66) in the pairs figure skating short program and in the pairs figure skating overall total competition score (216.57).