Away 2003 (?)
Matchworn by Huang Che-Ming (year and game unknown)
Manufacturer: Chiggia
Source: eBay
THE COUNTRY
You may ask yourself „What the hell is Chinese Taipei?”. Well, the short answer is: “Taiwan”.
The long answer, however, is a bit more complicated…
Despite the “One-China policy” which, as the name suggests, asserts that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, there are actually two China’s:
The People’s Republic of China (Mainland China or the-China-you-think-of-when-you-hear-the-name-China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan), which both claim to be the one and only China. This causes a bit of a hiccup, as the PCR does not seem to agree with the idea, that another – and to make things even worse, democratic – China exists off the coast of its mainland. As the PCR easily gets offended, when the Republic of China either uses its real name or “Taiwan” for global events, the Olympic Committee proposed the name “Chinese Taipei” – which only works for both, due to a certain ambiguity regarding the expression “Chinese” – as an official name used for sport events.
Ever since, Taiwanese/Chines Taipei/Chinese (Republic) athletes enter the stadiums of the world under a made-up name, waving a, coincidentally, white flag and probably feeling a bit ripped off…
THE SHIRT
It wasn’t easy to gather any information about this fantastic shirt. Since the Chinese Taipei national team can usually be found in the lower half of the FIFA ranking and due to the confusing naming situation, old pictures of their national aren’t particularly abundant.
I was, however, able to find pictures of Taiwan’s (I’m getting lazy…) women's team wearing a short-sleeved version of the shirt during the 2003 AFC Championship in Thailand. Minor stains in my jersey suggest, that this shirt must have been worn by the men’s team at some point.
The shirt belonged to Huang Che-Ming, who, according to Wikipedia, used to be the team’s top goal scorer until he retired in 2004.
The shirt was made by Taiwanese manufacturer “Chiggia” and is therefore a genuine “Made in Taiwan”! It features the coat of arms of their former football flag, which was changed to their Olympic flag in 2006, and a dizzying collar.
