As is well known to Taiwanese performers and sports stars abroad, Chinese regularly attack Taiwanese for being, well, Taiwanese. The latest example of this mindless, belligerent nationalism occurred in Seattle....Yeh said that Taiwanese player Liu You-chen (劉祐辰) won the bronze medal in the grand final of Project Gotham Racing 3 and displayed the Republic of China (ROC) flag during the award ceremony.
More than 10 Chinese gamers and Chinese media employees scrambled toward the stage to grab the flag, she said.
After the ceremony, Chinese players confronted the Taiwanese contestants, requesting that they surrender Liu and calling Taiwanese players "sons of bitches," the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) reported.
The report said that Chinese players struck at the Taiwanese and tried to prevent them from taking their vehicle back to their hotel. Seattle police were called in to maintain order while the ministry's representative office in Seattle sent personnel to provide assistance.
The organizer dispatched a vehicle to transport the Taiwanese players back to their hotel, the report said.
ESWN had the report from Apply Daily:
At the World Cyber Games, D2C-BURBERRYqq (aka Liu You-chen) of Taiwan finished in third place for Project Gotham Racing. At the award ceremony, Liu unfurled a Republic of China flag and was showed with invectives from the mainland Chinese contingent: "Fuck your mother!" "Was his mother a bitch dog?" "What kind of trash flag is that?" "You are not Chinese!" "Do you know that this will result us being banned from the competition!" That last statement is perplexing, but the rumor was that the mainland Chinese competitiors were told that if they could not successfully prevent the Taiwanese competitiors from showing the ROC flag, the Chinese government will ban them from further participation in international cybergame competitions.
A longer version of the Apple Daily piece is available here.
[Taiwan] [US] [China]
Makes you wonder how the Chinese will behave during the Olympics after they lose.
ReplyDeleteCalling Taiwan "sons of bitches", coming from people who claim they're the motherland, haha
ReplyDeleteI hope Chinese Taipei team will displine their players who violated agreed upon rules that is supposed to keep competition pure and politics out.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the official WCG site, and the Chinese Taipei team flag representing Taiwan:
http://us.worldcybergames.com/sp/web/us.asp
Still think the bad behavior is only one side?
Typical. I was about 7 when I was told to draw my national flag in grade school. I was the only one in my school from Taiwan and so my flag was placed amongst hundreds of others in the cafeteria. In just two days later it was defaced and lay on the floor in shreds.
ReplyDeleteThis was back in the 1980's. At that point I was quite confused. In private I would be Taiwanese, but in Public, especially in Taiwan, I was told to say I was Chinese.
This is nothing. TI supporters should be happy that people who show the ROC flag get beaten. That's what they want.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the official WCG site, and the Chinese Taipei team flag representing Taiwan:
ReplyDeleteBobby, the Netherlands guy is draped in his flag. How come that's not political? Also, if politics are out, why is the Taiwan team called "Chinese Taipei" and not "Taiwan" or "ROC"? There's no such entity as "Chinese Taipei." Your position is completely weird -- "politics" is "out" in your view, as long as Taiwan does what China wants. Except that what China wants is political..... also, the Chinese should have simply registered a protest. They didn't have to attack anybody.
Michael
that's not the only 'wierd' view that bobby holds...take a look at his blogs on 'the myth of Tiananmen square massacre' and 'what's wrong with 'organ harvesting''....
ReplyDeleteAh...the infamous Bobby Fletcher/Charlie Liu/Sunday Service/etc, the Chinese crusader who roams the internet defending the CCP.
ReplyDeleteJust type his name into Google, and you'll see how this guy is either a Chinese sponsored agent (and a bad one at that) or a nutcase - he basically runs multiple blogs with titles such as "The Myth of Tiananmen Square Massacre", "What's wrong with "Organ Harvesting"?", as well as commenting on any blog entries that criticizes China. All under his "white American male" alias for an unbiased American view, of course.
Well, Michael, at least your blog is definitely gaining exposure if it's attracting would famous nutjobs like him. Congrats.
Furthermore, if politics should be left out, why are the PRC team members allowed to make lewd comments based on their interpretation of the political situation.
ReplyDeleteActually, this topic distresses me less because of the attitude of the PRC team (which I find disgraceful, yet typical based on past examples) than for the lack of a comment on the part of the hosts of the event. This event was held in Seattle. I think it is the responsibility of event organizers to make clear that teams that harrass others are not welcome at such events.
As for letting politics seep in, in the form of the display of a national flag, then I suppose that every football team in the world is in the wrong. I agree that international games should not be subject to political conditions, however, that should not extend to basic and healthy expressions of pride.
Bobby Fletcher, you should remember that during the Olympic Games, the flags of the three medalists in each event are displayed in a ceremony and the national anthem of the gold winner is often played.
Any other sources?
ReplyDeleteI saw the news today and the guy is back in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteHe was holding up a check for US$3000 so I assume it was for his awesome gaming skills and not an "I'm sorry" payment from China.
I've asked this question before, but...what happens if Taiwan wins a gold medal next August? Do they raise the flag and play the ROC anthem in the Bird's Nest?
ReplyDeleteDo you know if there is a protocol in place for this? I'm rooting for Taiwan to win an event just to see what would happen.
On an unrelated note (and this is based on anecdotal evidence so take it with the appropriate measure of salt) but living in Beijing, I've noticed an upswing in the amount of aggressive displays of knee-jerk jingoism by young Chinese males in the last year. In bars, on the street, on the internet, in stories like this one. As I said, I don't have any hard evidence or anything, it's more of a gut feeling but still...
Thanks for the post.
Whenever Chinese and Taiwanese clash like this I think "What would the Israelis do?" If someone did this to the Israeli flag, I don't think the athletes / gamers would take it so passively. Begs the question: Why do the Taiwanese never seem to defend themselves? Where is the security from the Taiwan government? The Chinese seem committed to re-/unify with Taiwan, but the Taiwanese don't seem committed to defending themselves - let alone seeking true independence.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance on the part of the Chinese team.
ReplyDeleteThey are taught (brainwashed) in school that Taiwan is an integral part of China, and that all Taiwanese are splittists/terrorists. It's not surprising to see this reaction because the average Chinese citizen doesn't know any better.
Until the education system in China changes, we can expect more of the same.
It reminds me of PRC tourists I've talked to in various parts of Asia and Australia who believe that the Dalai Lama personally planted bombs, and that Tianenmen never happened.
Why do they hate us?! ;) The Chinese hardly provide any carrots to the Taiwanese for reunification, do they?
ReplyDeleteFor Jeremiah's question, if I remember it right, in case a Taiwanese wins any medal, they will raise the Olympic flag (5 circles on white cloth) and play the official Olympic song. At least that was what they did before.
ReplyDelete@ Boyd: As a Taiwanese living in US, I usually do not know what is the proper way to 'defend' ourselves. Usually if I try, the onlookers just think that I am arguementive. Nobody really cares what I say and I certainly cannot convince the Chinese to change their attitude.
Meg
Meg,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clearing that up.
Cheers,
Jeremiah
@ Boyd: As a Taiwanese living in US, I usually do not know what is the proper way to 'defend' ourselves. Usually if I try, the onlookers just think that I am arguementive. Nobody really cares what I say and I certainly cannot convince the Chinese to change their attitude.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking Chinese from both side gets alone very well. Student associations usually don't talk about politic in the US anymore. There are probably more conflict amoungest the economic classes than who is Taiwanese and Chinese. And students from Taiwan are usually the one driving beemers to the schools and having condos right next to the Universities. It is hardly a hard life :).
I've met some fairly stooge-headed people from both sides:
ReplyDelete1) Mainland Chinese who insist that Taiwan belongs to the PRC and refuse to acknowledge that Taiwan has its own government, and
2) Taiwanese who deny being ethnically Chinese simply because the Communists took 50 years of the 5000-year Chinese history.
Michael, the Chinese Taipei team agreed to participate under the team flag (as shown in the WCG site) - shouldn't he honor the agreement and drape himeself in the team flag?
ReplyDeleteBeing ethnically Chinese is one thing, being nationally Chinese is another, or is it? As the ethnical Chinese saying goes, a white horse is not a horse. When the Taiwanese want to show something ethnically Chinese, people ask "Didn't you say that you are not Chinese?" So the Taiwanese have to celebrate mid-autumn festival instead of Ethnical Chinese Moon Festival, Lunar New Year instead of Ethnical Chinese New Year. Oh, that one China policy is an ingenious thing, messing with not just geopolitics but temporalpolitics as well. And here this crazier-still stooge say China is not Chinese, so long as it continues to use that superficial artifical "simplified" abomination, so long as it continues to argue that ancient Chinese philosophies are materialisc....
ReplyDeleteMichael, the Chinese Taipei team agreed to participate under the team flag (as shown in the WCG site) - shouldn't he honor the agreement and drape himeself in the team flag?
ReplyDeleteYes, and when blacks went on the bus in the south in the 1960s, they agreed not to sit up front too.
Michael
@meg, jeremiah,
ReplyDeleteWhen Taiwan won its first gold medal in 2004, the IOC played the Flag Song of the Republic of China. It's the song played when raising or lowering the R.O.C. flag in Taiwan, and personally I think it's more beautiful than the national anthem itself. It also describes the flag in the last line of song!
Oh pleeze, Michael - the Taiwan players agreed to participate under the team falg. They dind't have to come to Seattle and play this private event hostedy by Microsoft (not sponsored by either ROC or PRC.)
ReplyDeleteThe black people had no choice. I'm Taiwanese and I can't agree with this provocation.
Thanks for your opinion Bobby, or CKLiu, or whatever you are calling yourself these days.
ReplyDeleteMichael