The great urge to learn everything about soccer during World Cup tournaments has become the norm in Taiwan every four years.
If a visitor was to browse the news, they might assume that the nation’s craze for soccer was similar to that in other parts of the world, going hand-in-hand with a professional soccer league and a couple of star players.
That is not the case. Taiwan ranks 176th among 207 members in the latest FIFA world ranking. It has neither a pro league, nor any soccer stars to speak of. The sport, like many others, has never caught the public’s attention and perhaps nine out of 10 Taiwanese have never watched a non-World Cup soccer game.
Taiwanese do not care about soccer outside of the four weeks or so every four years that the World Cup is played. The nation is one of the few Asian countries where soccer is not a popular sport.
While soccer is undoubtedly a beautiful game and major sports events of all kinds capture attention, how does someone explain the World Cup frenzy in Taiwan?
The first reason could be Taiwanese’s addiction to anything deemed trendy — be it soft-serve ice cream from convenience stores, South Korean television dramas, or the interest in the love affairs of a cartoonist or a brutal murder case.
And media outlets accommodate such short-lived fascinations. Sports, the last thing in the hierarchy of most newsrooms, now makes headlines on daily basis.
Television networks, newspapers and magazines that dedicate little coverage to soccer the rest of the year have increased their coverage to disproportionate levels.
Journalists who cover other sports have been forced to be reluctant soccer experts, hoping only that they do not make gaffes that might embarrass them for the rest of their lives.
The Taiwanese stampeding of fads means it is unlikely that many people really appreciate the essence and the spirit of soccer, let alone the technical side of the game and why there have been anti-World Cup protests in Brazil.
Many people are approaching the tournament like a fashion show, focusing only on the appearance and physique of the players.
It was the same pursuit of instant gratification that had made former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) infamously declare in 2002 that year would be “Year One of Taiwanese soccer,” vowing to develop the sport, yet weeks later forgetting about it entirely.
One could say that World Cup fever is characteristic of Taiwanese society, which has always ignored not only soccer, but also the general development of sports, as well as other pursuits, such as journalistic professionalism.
A society that tends to indulge in overnight sensations, while forgetting the big picture is one in which a sporting event and a cartoonist’s extramarital affairs can divert people from major issues, such as a snowballing scandal involving senior government officials accused of corruption in government housing projects.
The sight of Taiwanese cheering on the sidelines of the World Cup should make policymakers and voters reflect on the nation’s failed sports policy and development.
It is also a poignant echo of Taiwanese’s aspiration to join the rest of the world on center stage, be it a sporting event or at the UN.