Taiwanese athletes won more medals at the Tokyo Olympics than at any previous Olympic Games, including the first medal ever in badminton, boxing, golf and gymnastics. These outstanding performances made for very exciting television for all Taiwanese.
Taiwanese athletes did not only shine in the competitions, they also displayed the culture and moral quality of the nation, and the world gave them a big thumbs-up.
Having grown up in Taiwan’s generally diverse, liberal and tolerant society, most of the nation’s athletes are gentle and courteous, and they were all sporting, as they were neither arrogant in victory, nor discouraged in defeat. In doing so, they gave full play to the high standards of Taiwan’s soft power.
The men’s badminton doubles Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) are very good examples of this. On July 30, they defeated Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the semi-final. Despite the ecstasy and excitement they must have felt after having won the match, they immediately bowed to Ahsan repeatedly to show their respect to the top Indonesian player, an action that won much praise from Indonesian Internet users.
The day before, 19-year-old Taiwanese table tennis player Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) was defeated by the world No. 1, Chinese player Fan Zhendong (樊振東), in the men’s table tennis singles semi-final. When asked by reporters after the match how he would rate his opponent, Lin simply answered: “Am I qualified to rate him?” With this answer, Lin, who is ranked No. 5 in the world, clearly displayed a wisdom and demeanor beyond his age.
Moreover, although Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), the world’s No. 1 female badminton player, lost to Chinese player Chen Yufei (陳雨菲) by a slim margin in the women’s singles final on Aug. 1, everyone witnessed Tai’s willpower and spirit as she kept fighting until the end.
As President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told her on the telephone after the game: “You’re the best.”
Three years ago, after Tai won the badminton gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games, an aggressive Chinese journalist asked Tai if she had felt a need to win that competition to prove that she really was the best player in the world, as she was ranked No. 1 without having won a big competition. In a calm voice, Tai responded by asking the reporter: “Is this really something that needs proving,” highlighting the ignorance and rudeness of the journalist.
Chinese athletes, on the other hand, repeatedly used coarse language during the Games.
After Chen won the gold medal, she pointed to the five-starred flag on her jersey in front of the camera, as if she was worried that the media might have failed to recognize her.
Such actions highlight the cultural and moral gap between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and which one is the better is self-evident. Through the Olympics, Taiwanese athletes once again allowed the world to see the nation’s positive energy.
Chang Li-chun is an assistant professor at Ming Chuan University’s Department of Journalism.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS