Taiwan: National dignity hurt in the Asian Games · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

On November 17, a leading Taiwanese Taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun was disqualified from the 2010 Asian Games during a match with a Vietnamese competitor for  “wearing non-certified electronic foot equipment” or “electronic socks”. The incident has stirred up a lot of emotions in Taiwan. It became an online populist nationalistic outrage, with more than 27,000 angry Taiwanese Facebook users joining an online Anti-Rogue campaign.
The controversial referee
Engadget Chinese addresses the controversy from a technical perspective. He points out that the function of the “electronic socks” is to help the judge to record details of a successful attack in Taekwondo. Yang's “electronic socks” are an old version and may affect the recording. However, the judge could have issued a warning and asked her to change the equipment, instead of disqualifying her:
本屆亞運會規則從嚴，不符合 規定會馬上被判失去資格，與一般跆拳道比賽，選手護具、衣服、牙套出現問題，以罰分或警告處罰不同。
A Dong collects all related video clips to show what had exactly happened during the match. Below are two video clips. The first one shows the match between Yang and the Vietnamese competitor. Arguably Yang is more skillful. The second one shows the emotional scene on how the judgment caught Yang by surprise. She kept asking what had happened and refused to leave the stage, with tears in her eyes.
To show their support for Yang Shu-chun, netizen very quickly launch an online sticker campaign:
Translation: Go go go! Yang, we are proud of you!
Su Li-wen (蘇麗文), another national female Taekwondo athlete who is considered the “light of Taiwan”, protests against the referee and believes that the event is a political framing:
當選手這麼多年第一次看到這如此離譜的抹黑！！而且我們的得分全是上端動作。
以我們世界前三的實力根本無須對差距很大的對手做這些小動作！這根本是政治抹黑！
抹煞選手的運動人格！選手的努力就為了這一刻，不管輸贏都要為台灣而戰！
就算戰死在賽場上，也沒關係。但是就是無法接受這樣的抹黑和不公平事件！
我真的氣瘋了！！台灣人不是這樣好欺負的！黃顯詠選手就證明了這一點！
往後還有三天，我們會使盡全力把你們的欺負和汙辱全部一次討回來！！
看著吧，台灣人不是好欺負的！
Who to blame?
The controversy has taken a political turn and the Sports Affairs Council of Taiwan has become a target of online criticism[zht]. Many angry Facebook users criticize the Council for not standing firmly and fighting back against the disqualification:
我們不禁要問，當多數的台灣人民看到這樣極不合理的判決而譁然時，台灣政府為何可以如此理性?我們當然不是要它跟中國政府大吵一架，或是杯葛這次的賽事，但台灣政府連最起碼的態度都不願意演一下…
The emotion has induced a number of racial remarks against the Korean Filippino referee and mainland Chinese. In mainland China, there are also some debates about the incident. Tianya user Big sparrow points out that other athletes from mainland China and East Timor also got disqualified in the Taekwondo Game.  Another Tianya user 5218734 says:
棒子+菲律宾猴子 双重国籍的裁判整的事，你不去骂裁判，反而怪到中国头上了，还说中国阴谋论，脑残吧。。。中国亚运会拿100多个金牌分分秒秒的事，还用的着干这事？ 弯弯媒体反正知道，只要是中国“打压”台湾的新闻，就等于升职+奖金大大地，让我们拭目以待，看看弯弯媒体会找到几条 “打压“的证据，只要自己输了就是老共的阴谋， 厌倦了弯弯天天喊被打压的悲情牌， 天天吵吵闹闹的， 自己作弊也说被打压， 比赛前服用兴奋剂没有查出来，比赛完后，被查出你服用兴奋剂，然后处罚你就是打压？？？
Populist politics
Very often, social media like Facebook and Plurk have become platforms for accelerating irrational hatred and nationalism in Taiwan, especially during international games. The upcoming mayoral election and the manipulations along with it also provide a lot of firewood to let all those online campaigns burn.
In fact, it is not the first time that rage against referee over controversial game results has appeared during international sports competition. Cheng Da-wei (鄭大為), an experienced and world-famous Taiwanese Taekwondo coach, referee and ex-athlete, faced fierce protests and scolding over a controversial ruling. In the 2009 East Asian Games in Hong Kong, he decided that the Korean competitor won without a foul over a controversial hit at the neck of the Taiwanese competitor. Cheng's family was harassed by raging people for “not supporting our own man” and his Korean wife left him because she could not stand the harassment anymore. Under great populist pressure, Cheng was deprived of his qualification as coach by the National Taekwondo Association for three years. Even though there was an online petition aiming to rehabilitate Cheng's reputation and job[zht] because his referee was reasonable and fair, not many people really cared.
Orbisx finds such sports related populist nationalism hypocritical:
台灣人有時候真的很假仙，平常國家國格被踐踏、國家定位不清都漠不關心，運動員被搞的時候卻又好像亡國一般，實在非常捨本逐末。
Some netizens, such as PipperL, are worried that the interplay between emotions in the social media and the mainstream media may amplify such irrational hatred. Is this going to be something that netizens can fix on themselves? Or will populist politics in social networking sites lead to further tribalization? We will see.