No contest is too obscure in Taiwan’s quest for global recognition | CPT PPP Coverage

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JUST 13 OF THE 193 countries in the UN recognise the Republic of China as a sovereign country, among them such diplomatic heavyweights as Belize, Eswatini and Tuvalu. The name Taiwan, by which it is more commonly known, annoys the much larger People’s Republic of China, which insists (with menaces) that organisations from the WTO to the International Society for Horticultural Science refer to the island as “Chinese Taipei”. Small wonder that Taiwan’s 24m people are constantly looking for ways to affirm that they are not, in fact, ruled by the authoritarian regime in Beijing. Often they rejoice in victories that others might deem inconsequential.

Take cup-stacking, a game that, as the name suggests, involves stacking cups. Also known as sport stacking, it is a staple on Taiwanese news whenever the country wins. In June Formosa Television (FTV), a pro-independence channel, revealed that two Taiwanese primary-school pupils had set a new world record. Their achievement had even been recognised by the World Sport Stacking Association, the game’s highest governing body, which FTV pointed out has its headquarters in America.

In September the government-funded Central News Agency broke the news that the country had won four gold medals at the Tug-of-War Outdoor World Championships in the Netherlands. When the Chien Kuo High School Marching Band, based in Taipei, the capital, won third place at the 19th World Music Contest, also in the Netherlands, FTV declared that the students’ hard work “helped put Taiwan on the world stage”.

A local chocolatier recently nabbed a gold, three silvers and two bronzes at the Asia-Pacific Bean-to-Bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition, to much media fanfare. (Her winning confection involved hazelnut and red Oolong tea.) “RECOGNITION” is how the pro-independence Taipei Times described the victory of a Taiwanese troupe at the 31st Spanish Dance and Flamenco Choreography Competition in Madrid in May.

The government, too, takes pride in small wins. When an artist set a record for carving a 168-link chain out of a pencil in 2020, the foreign ministry’s website touted the triumph. Another miniaturist, it noted, had in 2016 “bested contestants from around the world to claim a double championship at the prestigious Japan Hamamatsu Diorama Grand Prix” for his scale model of a Japanese eel restaurant. And when two designers won a Grammy award this year, the acclaim came right from the top. In July they were invited to meet Taiwan’s president.