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
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS