The great urge to learn everything about soccer during World Cup tournaments has become the norm in Taiwan every four years.
If a visitor was to browse the news, they might assume that the nation’s craze for soccer was similar to that in other parts of the world, going hand-in-hand with a professional soccer league and a couple of star players.
That is not the case. Taiwan ranks 176th among 207 members in the latest FIFA world ranking. It has neither a pro league, nor any soccer stars to speak of. The sport, like many others, has never caught the public’s attention and perhaps nine out of 10 Taiwanese have never watched a non-World Cup soccer game.
Taiwanese do not care about soccer outside of the four weeks or so every four years that the World Cup is played. The nation is one of the few Asian countries where soccer is not a popular sport.
While soccer is undoubtedly a beautiful game and major sports events of all kinds capture attention, how does someone explain the World Cup frenzy in Taiwan?
The first reason could be Taiwanese’s addiction to anything deemed trendy — be it soft-serve ice cream from convenience stores, South Korean television dramas, or the interest in the love affairs of a cartoonist or a brutal murder case.
And media outlets accommodate such short-lived fascinations. Sports, the last thing in the hierarchy of most newsrooms, now makes headlines on daily basis.
Television networks, newspapers and magazines that dedicate little coverage to soccer the rest of the year have increased their coverage to disproportionate levels.
Journalists who cover other sports have been forced to be reluctant soccer experts, hoping only that they do not make gaffes that might embarrass them for the rest of their lives.
The Taiwanese stampeding of fads means it is unlikely that many people really appreciate the essence and the spirit of soccer, let alone the technical side of the game and why there have been anti-World Cup protests in Brazil.
Many people are approaching the tournament like a fashion show, focusing only on the appearance and physique of the players.
It was the same pursuit of instant gratification that had made former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) infamously declare in 2002 that year would be “Year One of Taiwanese soccer,” vowing to develop the sport, yet weeks later forgetting about it entirely.
One could say that World Cup fever is characteristic of Taiwanese society, which has always ignored not only soccer, but also the general development of sports, as well as other pursuits, such as journalistic professionalism.
A society that tends to indulge in overnight sensations, while forgetting the big picture is one in which a sporting event and a cartoonist’s extramarital affairs can divert people from major issues, such as a snowballing scandal involving senior government officials accused of corruption in government housing projects.
The sight of Taiwanese cheering on the sidelines of the World Cup should make policymakers and voters reflect on the nation’s failed sports policy and development.
It is also a poignant echo of Taiwanese’s aspiration to join the rest of the world on center stage, be it a sporting event or at the UN.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry