Ever since Taiwan's athletes won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Athens Olympics, taekwondo has become the highest profile sport in Taiwan, almost more popular than baseball.
For the Oct. 10 National Day events, taekwondo athletes were exhausted by a punishing schedule of performances. In the morning Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) -- the nation's first gold medalist -- sang the national anthem. Then, groups of high school students performed, breaking boards and practising combat sequences on the square in front of the Presidential Office. In the evening, they were invited to attend the National Day reception party, performing taekwondo for guests and dignitaries.
PHOTO: CHANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
In the past month Chen has appeared in at least four advertisements, as well as endorsing products such as Olympics memorial stamps, moon cakes and stumping for anti-piracy. She has been dressed up in a gaudy-looking kimono to promote the massage chair brand Osim. She wore a policewoman's uniform to encourage registration for volunteer firefighters.
According to local media, for each appearance as a public speaker, Chen is paid NT$100,000. For a TV ad, she charges NT$1 million.
The Lin-sen Taekwondo Gym (林森跆拳道館), or dojang (道場), which she trained in as a kid, has become a hot spot for young taekwondo learners. It's a 30 year-old gym opened and run by Chen's father, taekwondo coach Chen Wei-hsiung (陳偉雄). It's a rooftop house in a four-story apartment in Shihpai, on the outskirts of Taipei.
It's not a spacious gym and the decor is not fancy. On the wall of the apartment is a giant signboard saying "First Olympic Champion!" (奧運第一金). The sign is so big it can be spotted from the nearby MRT station.
"I learned taekwondo here since the age of five," Chen said, while having her make-up done, before rushing to another promotional event.
Inside the gym, dozens of young children are going through their weekly lessons. Most of them are elementary school students and just a few are in junior high school.
"It's true that in the last two months we have seen more parents sending their kids here to learn taekwondo. We have had an increase of students of at least 10 percent," Chen Wei-hsiung said.
One of the students is Lee Shin-hang (李欣航), a six year-old girl who started at the dojang two months ago. She just upgraded from white belt to yellow belt. "My mom drives me here, twice a week," she said. She said she likes taekwondo because it's fun.
Ten-year-old Lee Mu-fan (李慕藩) has been studying for a year now and is a red-black belt. "I like to spin and kick because it's easy," he said. "Also, learning taekwondo helps me with my computer game techniques."
Chen Wei-hsiung is a strict coach. A 1m-long wooden rod symbolizes his severe training style. "Anyone misbehaving will be punished by this rod. Shih-hsin has suffered from it a lot, she was beaten on the hands," he said.
Obviously his strict methods work. In the past 30 years his dojang has played a crucial part in developing young taekwondo talents. "I teach students as they grow up. And when they are married and have kids, they send their kids to learn from me as well," Chen said.
Taekwondo originated in Korea and was introduced to Taiwan in 1966, as a combat skill for the military. Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), Chiang Kai-shek's son (蔣介石) was the minister of national defense at the time and chose taekwondo because he thought boxing lacked the traditional Chinese spirit. He did not choose karate because he was said to be anti-Japanese.
Taekwondo was first introduced to the marines, then the army and navy. Chen Wei-hsiung retired from the army in the 1970s and opened free classes for local communities. Soon, Chen gathered a group of friends and began to lobby elementary schools to start taekwondo classes.
In the 1980s, taekwondo as a sport began to take off. The Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association was established in 1974 and in 10 years established taekwondo clubs in elementary schools throughout the country. Besides the schools, more than 600 private taekwondo gyms were set up and registered by the association.
"A lot of the top taekwondo athletes you see now on TV were trained during the 1980s," Chen said.
At that time, when most elementary students had to wear uniforms to school, those who did taekwondo did not have to. "Every day, around three in the afternoon, after they had finished their taekwondo classes, students would show off their tunics, running around the campus, enjoying envious looks from the other kids," Chen said.
According to Chen, taekwondo has taken off in Taiwan for two main reasons. Firstly, because it is the foundation of military training. Secondly, due to the Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association's hard work promoting the sports. "We are lucky that it is a large yet very united family. From the very beginning we knew that we had only one goal, which was to win gold medals in international games," he said. "And now we have made it."
So who will be the country's next gold-medal winner? Chen pointed to a skinny little 10-year-old boy with a black belt, named Pan Yi-wei (潘逸瑋), who started learning the martial art at the age of three. "I like taekwondo because it's fun and looks cool." he said. "My idols are Jet Li, Bruce Lee and Chen Shih-hsin. I hope to be like them in the future."
For your information :
Learning Taekwondo
Average charge: NT$4,000 for eight weeks, once a week, each time two hours
Taekwondo clubs: visit Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association Web site for recommended clubs.
www.taekwondo.com.tw.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50