Soccer fans have the opportunity to vote on a new nickname and slogan for the men’s and women’s national squads ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and Asian Games.
Online voting is open until Aug. 14, the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) said in a news release earlier this month.
People can vote at https://contest.plus1today.tw/ctfanationalteam/?v=156771&_trms=ebe8a2637e1a8171.1690553323876
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Football Association
“The CTFA is looking to rally our citizens to support the national teams, and so it is organizing a contest for all soccer fans and friends to vote on a special new name for the squad,” the CTFA said, adding that it aims to “create a positive image for all age levels of Taiwan soccer in international competitions.”
The CTFA has provided four nickname options to vote on: Island Fighters (島嶼鬥士), Blue Mags (我們的藍鵲們), Blue Wings (藍翼軍團) and Blue Claws (藍爪軍團).
The five choices for the new slogans are “Back your Blue Mags” (支持你的足球國家隊), “Claws out” (猛爪出擊), “Fight for your dream” (為夢想而戰), “Run till goal” (狂奔直到攻破球門) and “Aka La Lima” (突破困難).
“Aka La Lima” might seem like an odd tribute to Peru’s capital city, but the CTFA said it comes from the Amis people on Taiwan’s east coast, and means “getting past the fifth wave.” It is a colloquial expression meant as an encouragement to keep fighting under difficult conditions, to never give up or accept defeat.
Many people on Taiwan’s soccer chat sites have asked for more options, as some have found the proposed nicknames unfamiliar and lacking in connection.
When Taiwan’s national team began to be noticed on the Asian soccer stage in the 1960s, they had no well-recognized symbol or nickname.
Domestic sports media and supporters traditionally referred them as “Zhonghua Team” (中華隊), “the Blues” or “the Blue shirts” (藍衫軍), as the national kit was blue when players traveled overseas during the Martial Law era. It alluded to the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “blue sky with a white sun” emblem.
In recent decades, as the national identity has changed, it has become more common to hear people cheering for “Team Taiwan,” while supporters from the “Blue Gale” (藍色疾風) soccer group have taken to using the “All Hail Formosa” slogan and chanting “Formosa Oh ole.” They refer to national players as the “Formosan Warriors.”
Sports experts and international soccer observers have also called for “Mulan” (木蘭) to be dropped as the nickname for the women’s team, in favor of the “Blue Magpies,” due to controversy surrounding the Disney film Mulan and because it was coined during the KMT’s rule.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS