More than 20 members of the National Taiwan University (NTU) rugby team celebrated the New Year Friday night in their unique way -- playing rugby naked.
The rugby team, formed by NTU students and alumni, was established in 1946 and is one of the oldest rugby teams in the country. Team members are mostly professionals -- professors, tycoons, doctors, judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
The rugby fanatics caused a sensation by playing rugby nude to celebrate the new millennium; since then it has become a New Year tradition.
"At first, we only wanted to try it once," said team captain "The Wall" (
"But it felt fantastic to play rugby with our clothes off. So we decided to make this an annual tradition," he said.
With temperatures in Taipei plummeting to 7oC on New Year's Eve, team members, along with their wives and children, arrived at the campus at about 11:30pm. As the countdown to welcome 2005 began, the teammates took off their clothes while the spectators screamed, laughed and applauded.
"This is the coldest New Year's Eve [in six years]," a member said.
But he was still intent on maintaining the tradition.
"All this naked playing on the lawn looks so natural to me," said one woman who had been invited to the event for the first time. "I'm deeply moved. I myself want to take off my clothes and join them."
Since a student at Chang Gung University was punished by that school's administrators for streaking on campus in June, to avoid trouble the rugby team decided not to allow student members to take part in the naked frolic.
The team practices at NTU at 3pm every Saturday. All rugby lovers are welcome to join in.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS