Sun, Jul 28, 2002 page17

• From a low-class to a high-profile sport

  • By Yu Sen-lun / STAFF REPORTER
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  "Billiards are one of Taiwan's few hopes at winning international games," said Simon Chang (張明雄). His crowded Ball King Pool Hall (球聖撞球場) in Hsimenting is a favorite spot for local top players to challenge one other.

  He points to a teenage boy practicing alone at a table. "This kid is joining a national tournament next week. He's defeated a lot of good players older than him and been on TV. He has a pretty decent look for TV, eh?" Chang asks.

  Hsimenting has more pool halls than any other part of Taipei and, by extension, Taiwan. In the same building as Ball King, there are four other pool halls located adjacent to an endless row of KTVs, red-envelope cabarets and saunas. Pool-playing as a popular trend in Taiwan has flowed out of such seedy, seemingly cultureless areas.

  As Chang talked, world-ranked No.1 male player Chao Fong-pang (趙豐邦) sat nearby sharing tea with Chang. "One very important factor [contributing to pool's popularity in the past five years] is the broadcasting of pool games on television," Chang said.

  Five years ago the Videoland Sports Channel began looking for the two sports most popular among Taiwanese to produce a regular sports program. "They chose billiards and bowling and began cooperating with the ROC Billiards Association" Chang said.

  According to Alen Lee, director of the ROC Billiard Association's professional player committee, in the year following the broadcast of daily pool games, the number of pool houses in Taiwan rose from 1,000 to about 3,000.

  Pool playing reached a frenzy after the 1998 Asian games, when the Chinese Taipei team won three gold medals, two silvers and a bronze. By 1999, the number of halls increased to around 5,000.

  "We've also packaged top players for stardom," Chang said. For example, Chao has been given the monicker "Cold Face Killer" (冷面殺手), Jennifer Chen is called "Pretty Baby" or "China Doll," and Liu Hsin-mei is the Billiards Queen."Other than these names, the association and TV station design the players' outfits for the games. They also regularly organize autograph sessions with fans and hold billiards demonstrations to market the game. TV helps create role models for fans to identify with and also learn shooting skills from," Chang said.

  "It has also helped to change the general image of pool-playing. The pool hall is not the gangster place it once was and many parents have fewer worries about their pool-loving kids," Chang said. For girls, the flashy performance of Liu Hsin-mei and Jennifer Chen in international games has made pool-playing extremely popular, said sports journalist Hsu Ming-li (許明禮).

  "Women are no longer just marking the scores for players. They've become the focus of spotlight," Hsu said. The first Amway Cup International Women's Billiard Tournament was held in 2000, helping stoke the game's popularity. The big prizes attracted top international players like Alison Fisher, Jeanette Lee, Gerda Hofstatter to compete in the tournament. The Amway Cup has since become one of Taiwan's highest-profile competitions.

  Now the number of women in local pool halls has grown from its previous 1 percent to some 15 percent," Chang said, adding that the ROC Billiard Association's next project will be to get their sport accepted as an official event in the Olympic Games.
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