With the Asian Winter Games set to open in Harbin, China, next month, Taiwan's national men's ice hockey team is hard at work in training, despite only getting two hours a week on the country's only skating arena to practice. The team travels to Harbin as underdogs but hopes to gain experience and hopefully respect as they go up against some of Asia's top hockey teams.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Speed, power and determination.
00:06This is Taiwan's National Men's Ice Hockey Team gearing up for the Asian Winter Games
00:11that will get underway in Harbin, China next month.
00:14The 20 players, aged 19 to 35, are set to face off against some of the top teams in
00:20Asia, including Kazakhstan, South Korea, Japan and the host, China.
00:26Holistically, Team Taiwan does not expect to win any medals, but they are aiming to
00:32gain valuable experience, as well as earn the respect of their opponents.
00:36I hope these young players can learn how to play hockey from a higher level team, and
00:43inspire them.
00:44I was inspired by this competition four or five years ago, and now I have a chance to
00:51play overseas.
00:53The National Men's Ice Hockey Team was formed in 2007, and currently ranks 40th in the world,
01:00behind Asian countries that have the advantage of having more snow than subtropical Taiwan.
01:08Team captain Ling Hongzhu has been playing ice hockey for almost two decades.
01:13Ling says the sport is not that popular in Taiwan.
01:17The National Men's Ice Hockey Team has been playing ice hockey for almost two decades.
01:22Ling says the sport is not that popular in Taiwan.
01:25And the government does not devote enough resources to its development.
01:29This is a traditional competition.
01:31In other competitions, we use ice for the skiing, sport climbing and ice skating.
01:36We only use the same area.
01:38There is a limit on how much we use in terms of distribution.
01:43Currently, the national team has access to the venue for just around two hours per week,
01:49with some players traveling long distances from other cities to attend training sessions,
01:54including Captain Ling.
01:56I have to travel from Taichung to Taipei, and it will take me four hours to drive back
02:02and forth.
02:03But for this goal, I have to work hard and get used to it, but I can't say it won't
02:10affect me.
02:11It will definitely affect me.
02:12Despite the challenges, Taiwan has seen the sport develop over the past ten years.
02:16However, there's still a lot of work to be done.
02:19We hope to have another ice rink to train more ice hockey players.
02:24We hope to get closer to the level of China and Japan within the next five years.
02:31But despite all the challenges, these players are determined to do what they love and shine
02:36out on the rink in Harbin, and win kudos even if they don't win their games.
02:41It's a great honor to meet these four great Asian ice hockey players.
02:47No matter what the result is, we want to win the respect of our opponents.
02:53There's a huge gap in the world rankings, but it's a great honor to meet them again.
02:59We want to see how far we can go.
03:04With the Asian Winter Games set to begin on February 7, Taiwan's hockey players know
03:09they must make the most of the limited time they have on the ice.
03:13It's time for them to get their skates on and share their pluck with the puck.
03:19Devon Tsai and Sunny Chi for Taiwan Plus.