Internet users in Taiwan inundated online forums and social networking sites with angry comments after Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) was disqualified from the Asian Games on Wednesday.
Yang was disqualified in the first round of her under-49kg bout against Vietnamese opponent Vu Thi Hau while holding a 9-0 lead.
Officials stopped the bout because they believed Yang’s electronic socks, used to register successful kicks, did not meet requirements, even though they had been approved in a pre-bout inspection.
As of yesterday, several fan pages had been set up on the social networking Web site Facebook to support Yang.
“I think the acronym of the World Taekwondo Federation, WTF, says it all: what the fuck,” Ruojin Yen, a member of social networking site Facebook, said in a message on her front page.
Another Facebooker, Michael Wang, believed the whole incident was a conspiracy.
“The whole thing looks like a conspiracy from any perspective: The date of the bout was changed right before it was scheduled to take place, the inspector asked [Yang] to change her socks, and then, at the end, the Korean referee came out and announced her disqualification,” Wang said in a message on Facebook.
Many Taiwanese netizens alleged that the whole incident could be a conspiracy set up by the host country China, because if Yang had won the match, she may have come face-to-face with her Chinese rival, taekwondo athlete Wu Jingyu (吳靜鈺)
Fans also expressed their anger toward China and South Korea, because Zhao Lei (趙磊), vice president of the Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU), is Chinese and Yang Jin-suk, secretary-general of the WTF, is from South Korea.
Some called for a boycott of South Korean goods.
Netizen Tsai A-ka (蔡阿嘎), who has made several videos in reaction to current events, made a video in which he recounted how he tried to buy some food from a convenience store, but all they had were South Korean kimchi-flavored crackers, seaweed and instant noodles.
In the video, he threw all the kimchi-flavored products to the ground and stomped on them.
“Let’s boycott Korean merchandise,” he said. “Let’s stop watching Korean drama! If you want to watch Korean drama, why not just watch Discovery channel?”
“Since Discovery channel and Korean drama show nothing but animals anyway,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS