Taiwanese athletes put on a brilliant performance at the Tokyo Olympics. The record medal harvest excited the whole nation. Athletic performance is a demonstration of a country’s soft power, and the Taiwanese athletes’ outstanding performance at the Summer Games was the result of a combination of factors, such as the local time, geographical proximity and human relations. There is almost no time difference between Taiwan and Japan, their weather and climate are similar, and Japan mobilized nine cities to receive Taiwan’s athletes. Taiwan also focused on developing weightlifting, badminton and table tennis, and participation in the Tokyo Games finally paid off with grand results.
Taiwanese were especially moved by not only the athletes’ fighting spirit, but also all of the training behind the scenes and the excitement of winning. After Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋) won gold in the badminton mixed doubles, Wang wrote on Facebook: “I am from Taiwan,” and Lee dedicated their victory to “my country, Taiwan.” During the awards ceremony, the Taiwanese national flag anthem was played, with the Chinese five-star flag in second place, which made many Taiwanese press their “Like” buttons: Taiwan beat China — there is a country on each side of the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan’s Olympic “Gold Program,” aimed at selecting the athletes most likely to win medals at the Tokyo Games, worked well. The performance of Aboriginal athletes deserves special mention: Judoka Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯), who won Taiwan’s first medal in Tokyo, is Paiwan; gold-medalist weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) is Amis; and there were many more talented Aboriginal athletes in track and field, archery, boxing, taekwondo and freestyle cycling.
The first Olympic medalist in Taiwan’s history, decathlete Yang Chuan-kuang (楊傳廣), who took silver at the 1960 Rome Games, was Amis. In addition to the performance of the Aboriginal athletes, this month honors Indigenous Peoples’ Day. On Aug. 1, 1994, the phrase “mountain compatriots” was corrected to “Aborigines” in the Constitution. Their efforts to have their name corrected highlight the rightness and necessity of correcting our country’s name at the Olympic Games.
Taiwan participated in the Tokyo Games under the name “Chinese Taipei,” with the plum blossom five-ring flag replacing the national flag, and the Taiwanese national flag anthem replacing the national anthem. This so-called “Olympic model” blatantly infringes on Taiwan’s national dignity and status. It is the result of Chinese suppression, compromise on the part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) erroneous policy that “gentlemen do not stand together with thieves.”
Imagine Lin and Yang formally representing Taiwan, Taiwan’s national flag being raised and Taiwan’s national anthem being played at the awards ceremony: The world would have known that it was Taiwan that won the gold medal. That would have been even more real, beautiful and moving.
Some say that competition is all about participation and that rectifying Taiwan’s national title would deny Taiwanese the opportunity to participate and that the IOC would not allow it — so they oppose a change. No matter how people look at it, this is only a justification for an abnormal stalemate that will only continue to humiliate and hurt Taiwan and Taiwanese athletes in the international sports arena.
Based on fact and common sense, Zhonghua Taibei (中華台北) is not the name of our country. It simply means “Chinese Taipei” or “Taipei, China,” and the abbreviation “TPE” is even more baffling to the world.
Although the capital’s name is used to represent the country in the international community, it was not representative of many of our athletes at the Tokyo Olympics: For example, Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) is from Kaohsiung and serves as the city’s goodwill ambassador; Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) was born in Taoyuan and grew up in Sanchung, New Taipei City; the Chan sisters, Latisha Chan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴), are from Taichung’s Dongshih District (東勢); Kuo Hsing-chun is from Yilan County’s Luotung Township (羅東); and Yang Chun-han (楊俊瀚) is from an Amis community in Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里). Do Taiwanese really want to let this name and the associated flag anthem continue to belittle our country?
Japanese public broadcaster NHK and South Korea’s MBC TV stations called our team “Taiwan” at the Olympic opening ceremony, highlighting the distortion and inaccuracy of “Chinese Taipei.”
A BBC article on the broadcaster’s Chinese-language Web site, entitled “The three teams that cannot participate in the Games using their country’s name” (三個不能用自己國家名字參賽的代表隊), reported on the 206 Olympians who could not compete under their national title, highlighting “Chinese Taipei” as one of them. Because the name often confuses international audiences, some international media simply say “Team Taiwan.” The second team was the Russian delegation, which competed under the name “Russian Olympic Committee,” due to doping issues, and the third comprised 29 athletes who competed under the name “Refugee Olympic Team.” For political reasons, Taiwan was listed with refugees and a team from a country being punished for doping offenses.
The name is wrong and awkward. The New York Times reported on the disparate treatment of Taiwan in its Chinese-language version, saying: “Politics has been holding Taiwan back from Olympic glory” (“政治一直在阻礙台灣獲得奧運榮耀”). Is this something that Taiwanese can put up with for much longer?
It goes without saying that China is the primary opponent of rectifying Taiwan’s name. Previously, Tai had lamented that she could not raise Taiwan’s national flag at international badminton competitions and was labeled by Chinese Internet users as advocating an independent Taiwan.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — which in the past insisted that “gentlemen do not stand together with thieves,” and refused to accept the name “Taiwan” or “Formosa” — remains unrepentant and often uses “China” to refer to the “Republic of China” to console itself. These people would rather let Taiwan continue to be humiliated and use this to show their loyalty to China.
Others, for defeatist reasons, claim that the IOC would not allow Taiwan to change its name, saying that it would affect our chances of participating in the Olympics. However, as noted by the “Flying Antelope” — Chi Cheng (紀政) — who has competed for Taiwan at the Olympic Games under the name “Taiwan,” there has never been a case in the history of the Olympic Games where an athlete lost the right to participate because of a “name issue.”
There is external resistance to Taiwan competing in international sports events under its own name, but the external environment has clearly changed. Taiwan’s representative offices abroad might have their names changed to “Taiwan.” Taiwan must not shrink from doing what must be done.
We should make careful, long-term plans. With effort, one can achieve anything.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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