Taiwan’s trove of Olympic medals has been celebrated by everyone, irrespective of politics, and loud cheers have echoed across social media and through neighborhoods, forming a melodic symphony. The nation has not felt such a sense of unity and excitement for a long time.
This pride in Taiwan’s athletes should help convey to the government that cultivating sports talent is not like campaigning for an election, which only require politicians’ attention every four years.
However, even as people cheered for the gold, silver and bronze medalists, they bemoaned that whichever party is in power, no president ever seems to attach much importance to sports. The only time everyone — no matter which party they belong to — is on the same page is when athletes win medals.
The television broadcasts from the Tokyo Olympics were a good example of this. The Public Television Service and Eastern Broadcasting Co had limited broadcasting rights and hours for the Games. Viewers who wanted to watch outstanding world-class events had to rely on Elta TV, a sports channel on Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand system. The cost of the broadcast fees is why access to the Games was so limited.
The fees for the broadcast rights to the Tokyo Olympics were estimated to exceed NT$400 million (US$14.4 million).
Although Chunghwa Telecom had the financial clout to broadcast the Games on its Elta TV channel, most TV stations chose not to broadcast them due to financial concerns. As a result, as Taiwanese athletes competed in the Games, some winning medals after years of hard work, the news anchors on mainstream channels could only report the events with some screenshots, which disappointed viewers.
While broadcasting sports events on TV is a commercial activity, politicians should make sports broadcasts available to everyone, if they truly care about sports.
Unfortunately, the issue, just like Taiwan’s presidential election, is only discussed every four years. Every four years, people seize the opportunity to criticize the government over the Games, but the politicians are soon forgiven and the matter disappears for another four years — always surfacing too late for anything to change.
The promotion of Taiwanese sports should not be a matter of paying lip service, and the government should not sit back and watch as athletes work hard in the sports arena all alone. Making sports broadcasting available to all could bring more fans and support — and it is certain to bring greater encouragement to the sports world.
The problem with TV broadcasting rights is just the tip of the iceberg, and nothing will change if the authorities do not give it some serious thought. Will Taiwanese continue to be haunted by this nightmare every four years?
A gold medal is a display of national strength. When Taiwan can win five, 10 or even more golds at the Olympics, it might be easier to change the name of Taiwan’s team from “Chinese Taipei” to something else.
Weber Lai is a professor in National Taiwan University of Arts’ department of radio and television. George is a senior worker in the telecommunications industry.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Father’s Day, as celebrated around the world, has its roots in the early 20th century US. In 1910, the state of Washington marked the world’s first official Father’s Day. Later, in 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon signed a proclamation establishing the third Sunday of June as a national holiday honoring fathers. Many countries have since followed suit, adopting the same date. In Taiwan, the celebration takes a different form — both in timing and meaning. Taiwan’s Father’s Day falls on Aug. 8, a date chosen not for historical events, but for the beauty of language. In Mandarin, “eight eight” is pronounced
Having lived through former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s tumultuous and scandal-ridden administration, the last place I had expected to come face-to-face with “Mr Brexit” was in a hotel ballroom in Taipei. Should I have been so surprised? Over the past few years, Taiwan has unfortunately become the destination of choice for washed-up Western politicians to turn up long after their political careers have ended, making grandiose speeches in exchange for extraordinarily large paychecks far exceeding the annual salary of all but the wealthiest of Taiwan’s business tycoons. Taiwan’s pursuit of bygone politicians with little to no influence in their home
In a recent essay, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, Christian Whiton, accuses Taiwan of diplomatic incompetence — claiming Taipei failed to reach out to Trump, botched trade negotiations and mishandled its defense posture. Whiton’s narrative overlooks a fundamental truth: Taiwan was never in a position to “win” Trump’s favor in the first place. The playing field was asymmetrical from the outset, dominated by a transactional US president on one side and the looming threat of Chinese coercion on the other. From the outset of his second term, which began in January, Trump reaffirmed his
Despite calls to the contrary from their respective powerful neighbors, Taiwan and Somaliland continue to expand their relationship, endowing it with important new prospects. Fitting into this bigger picture is the historic Coast Guard Cooperation Agreement signed last month. The common goal is to move the already strong bilateral relationship toward operational cooperation, with significant and tangible mutual benefits to be observed. Essentially, the new agreement commits the parties to a course of conduct that is expressed in three fundamental activities: cooperation, intelligence sharing and technology transfer. This reflects the desire — shared by both nations — to achieve strategic results within
RSS