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After the start of the Paris Olympics, as of the 8th, Taipei time, the Taiwan delegation won 1 gold and 5 bronze medals. The badminton men’s doubles team of Li Yang and Wang Qilin successfully defended their gold medals; Li Mengyuan won the bronze medal in men’s orienteering; Wu Shiyi won the bronze medal in women’s boxing lightweight and Chen Nianqin won the bronze medal in women’s boxing welterweight; Tang Jiahong won the bronze medal in men’s gymnastics horizontal bar. (Extended reading: “Why did Taiwan achieve the best results in history in the Tokyo Olympics?”
How Taiwan, which participates as “Chinese Taipei”, will “show up” at the Olympic Games has become a hot topic among many Taiwanese audiences inside and outside the venues. In addition, the Olympic Games’ restrictions on various flags and symbols related to Taiwan have also led to various creative support and emotional mobilization around Taiwan’s national identity and state status.
Online and offline remote connection and creative support
While Taiwanese players were doing their best on the court, Taiwanese people cheering in the audience also became the focus of the sidelines. In the semi-final match between Taiwanese men’s doubles badminton players Wang Qilin and Li Yang on the 2nd, international students on the sidelines used a homemade “Taiwan map” poster to cheer, but it was taken away by an Asian man wearing a pink shirt; another fan held a support towel with the words “Taiwan in” for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which was also confiscated by the on-site staff; and there were also spectators wearing shirts with the words Taiwan on them, who were asked by the on-site staff to put on a coat to cover the words; other Taiwanese who painted the flag of the Republic of China on their faces were also required to wash off the flag symbol on their faces before entering the venue.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested against the seizure of posters supporting international students and issued aPress releasesaying that the act of snatching the banners from Taiwanese spectators was “uncultured” and “seriously violated the civilized spirit represented by the Olympics.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that the office would assist in reporting the case to the French police.
At the same time, Taiwan’s representative to FranceWu Zhizhong pointed outTaiwanese people “showed resilience” under restricted circumstances: “This incident not only united all Taiwanese people, but also allowed more international friends who were not aware of the situation to further understand Taiwan’s situation through social media. This was also an unexpected gain.” Wu Zhizhong said that he has contacted Yang Zhiyun, the international student whose cheering sign was snatched, and will do his best to provide assistance. At the same time, he will maintain close contact with the organizers and the International Olympic Committee to strive to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
On August 4, 2024, the men’s doubles badminton gold medal at the Paris Olympics was successfully defended by Li Yang and Wang Qilin of the Chinese Taipei team of the Taiwan delegation. Photo: Ann Wang/Reuters/Dazhi Image
Then, as online discussions heated up, various posts of support were circulated in different languages on social networks, and fans on the sidelines also got creative, using Taiwanese, phonetic slogans, homophones, or pictures of sacred divination blocks (referring to the scene of Lin Yang winning the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics), or using Winnie the Pooh dolls to satirize Chinese leader Xi Jinping, trying to break through security checks with creativity.
Among them, after the “Lin-Yang pair” defeated the Chinese “Liang-Wang pair” to win the gold medal, during the subsequent award ceremony, a large number of mainland Chinese audiences spread out a sea of five-star flags, but in the sea of red flags, a Taiwanese cheering sign with “Pearl Milk Tea” and an illustration of the Lin-Yang pair was squeezed out, with the French words “Bon Courage” printed on it. (Extended reading: “After breaking the dirty water tank, what unfinished road does Taiwan’s sports reform still have?”)
This is the result of a “brainstorming” on the social media Threads after Taiwan’s support items were confiscated one after another. The creator of the character illustration authorized the Taiwanese present to use it for support, and avoided elements that “may violate the Olympic model” such as Chinese characters, Taiwan maps, and the flag of the Republic of China, focusing more on the athletes themselves, and using “bubble milk” as a symbol of Taiwan’s cultural identity.
However, the live broadcast of the awards ceremony also showed that among the sea of red flags, a spectator held up a small paper card with a map of Taiwan printed on it, but it was immediately snatched away by an unknown person behind him. However, the cheering slogans of “Team Taiwan!” continued to ring out at the scene.
As various cheering items were confiscated before entering the venue and snatched away after entering, Taiwanese people online continued to discuss how to break through the restrictions. Some suggested wearing T-shirts with the letters “T”, “A”, “I”, “W”, “A”, and “N” printed on them to sit at intervals; some people baked cookies in the shape of Taiwan Island and said they would distribute them at the stadium, “and just eat them if they are snatched away.”
On August 4, 2024, the men’s doubles badminton gold medal was successfully defended by Li Yang and Wang Qilin of the Chinese Taipei team of the Taiwan delegation, clapping with supporters in the stadium. Photo: Ann Wang/Reuters/Dazhi Image
The reason why Taiwan’s support items are strictly banned at the Olympic site is that for the International Olympic Committee, Taiwan participates in the Olympics under the name of “Chinese Taipei” and naturally must abide by the regulations of competing with the “plum blossom flag”.
The International Olympic Committee has always claimed that it has nothing to do with politics, and has written this “political neutrality” position into the Olympic Charter. If there is any dispute, it must return to this set of principles for implementation. The second article of the charter clearly states that it “opposes any political or commercial exploitation or harm of sports and athletes.” International sports federations and national Olympic committees under the jurisdiction of the International Olympic Committee must abide by the charter.
Article 50, paragraph 2, of the Charter also states: “No demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda of any kind shall be allowed in any Olympic venue, stadium or other area.” At the same time, the host city’s spectator guide will also state that it is prohibited to bring “political, religious, vulgar or commercial slogans”. Even if they meet the regulations, they must still comply with size regulations.
The host city of Paris defines so-called “political, religious, vulgar, commercial slogans” as “advertising content that can be used to convey religious or political messages, or is considered to be contrary to public order, or ropes, cardboard, posters or other items that can be used for protests in the venue.”
However, the reason why this controversy has caused a wave of public opinion online, especially on the emerging social platform Threads, is that even though the ban on the Republic of China flag has been in place for many years, whether “Taiwan”, “Go Taiwan!”, or the map of Taiwan Island also falls within the scope of “political propaganda” is a question that Initium Media reporters have not found when they checked the relevant provisions.
According to the Associated Press, IOC spokesman Mark Adams responded to the confiscation of the Taiwan flag, saying that Taiwan was participating in the Olympics in the Chinese Taipei model, so banners were not allowed, otherwise it would lead to questions like “this is allowed, so why not that?” He reiterated that the Paris Olympics official website stipulates that only flags approved by the General Assembly can be brought into the venue.
Politics on the sports field
In addition to cheering for the athletes and using various creative ways to break through the international defenses against “Taiwan” appearing in competitions, gender issues have also become a hot topic of discussion among Taiwanese netizens during the Olympics.
Among them, Taiwanese female boxer Lin Yu-ting and Algerian Imane Khelif were accused by the International Boxing Association (IBA) of having gender test results that did not meet the eligibility requirements for the competition, sparking fierce criticism from Taiwanese. (Extended reading: “The International Boxing Association held a chaotic press conference, failed to clarify the issue, and instead added more controversy”)
After the controversy was amplified, public opinion in Taiwan supporting Lin Yu-ting focused on her personal efforts and her fight back against stereotypes about women’s appearance. Many netizens shared their experiences of knowing Lin Yu-ting on Threads, and some shared their experiences of suffering gender discrimination because their appearance “did not conform to feminine characteristics”, criticizing society’s unfair treatment of women.
Later, at the IBA press conference, the IBA not only failed to produce evidence but continued to accuse Lin Yuting of being ineligible to participate and implied that Lin Yuting was a man. In response to a question from a Taiwanese reporter, the IBA chairman Umar Kremlev even said “Taiwan is part of China”, which led Taiwanese audiences to criticize Kremlev, who has ties to Russian state-owned enterprises, for his “undoubtedly pro-China stance.” Because of Kremlev’s remarks, the discussion shifted from defending Lin Yuting’s eligibility to the nationalist community imagination. One netizen said: “Lin Yuting is a microcosm of Taiwan. She is suppressed and ignored, and she has to constantly prove her existence.”
Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (red) and Turkish boxer Esra Yildiz Kahraman (blue) compete in the semi-finals of the 57kg category at the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 7, 2024. Photo: Peter Cziborra/Reuters/Dazhi Image
This sentiment also responds to the change in the Chinese government’s approach to Taiwan’s participation in the Olympics and other international events in recent years: after 2016, the official media in mainland China began to change the name used in the 1980s, replacing the previous translation of Chinese Taipei with “Chinese Taipei” in Olympic reports. Obviously, the previous tacit understanding has changed. (Extended reading: “When a Taiwanese athlete wins a gold medal, what flag is raised at the award ceremony? What song is played?”)
Some scholars and commentators believe that under the operation of Threads’ “content recommendation”-oriented algorithm, these Taiwanese students and Taiwanese working abroad form a series of spontaneous collaborative narratives around their own identities.
Editorial of ShangbaoQuoting the president of the French Taiwan Association, Xue Yachu, he said, “Events like this will make Taiwanese more aware of their predicament and bring about moments of awakening for Taiwanese at different stages of their lives, making them realize that they are Taiwanese and must defend their country.” The editorial said that this is an imagined community that was budding from disappearance.
Wang Hongen, associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, published his observations on the Olympics on Threads, pointing out that although these behaviors are irrational from an individualistic perspective, the group identity generated by human beings’ common life experiences and emotions cannot be easily erased, thus forming the “imagined community” proposed by Benedict Anderson, a scholar who studies the theory of nationalism.
Although there are heartwarming moments in the interaction between athletes that transcend competition between countries, such as the mutual admiration between the “Four Queens of Badminton” that moved the anchor and many fans to tears, the Olympics is not just a wrestling match in the stadium, but also a substantive manifestation of domestic and international politics and geopolitics, such as Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh speaking out for the Ukrainian wounded in the Russo-Ukrainian war after winning a medal; Algerian netizens criticizing the questioning of boxer Khalif as “colonialism”; Taiwanese netizens scattered around the country sorted out the words used by foreign media to introduce Taiwanese athletes and translated the content of posts by foreign athletes in support of Taiwanese athletes; or some mainland Chinese netizens posted “anti-Taiwan independence” slogans during the men’s doubles badminton final; or Hong Kong netizens fiercely debated the political stance of Olympic fencing champion Jiang Minwei – in addition to sportsmanship, political factors have never disappeared in international competitions.
On August 4, 2024, the men’s doubles badminton gold medal at the Paris Olympics was successfully defended by Li Yang and Wang Qilin of the Chinese Taipei team of the Taiwan delegation. Supporters took photos outside the venue. Photo: Ann Wang/Reuters/Dazhi Image
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2024-08-08 23:22:20
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