Taiwan's ‘Iron Man of Asia’ is brought back into the limelight in a new documentary film

He was the first Taiwanese athlete to win a silver medal

Originally published on Global Voices

Taiwan's first silver medal winner at any Olympic Games remains an unknown figure to younger Taiwanese generations, but a new documentary is shedding light on the “Iron Man of Asia” as decathlete C.K. Yang was known in the 1960s.

Taiwan’s presence and visibility at the Olympic Games is a long history of erasure and denial. This is partly because of the many historical upheavals that have reshaped names and geography in East Asia. The Republic of China (ROC), established in late 1911 in mainland China on the ruins of the last Qing dynasty (1644–1911), participated in the opening of the 1924 games and sent athletes in 1932. Taiwan, being a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, sent athletes who competed under a Japanese flag in the 1932 and 1936 games in Los Angeles and Berlin. In 1948, it participated in London under the name of China. From 1956 to 1972, Taiwanese athletes participated in various Olympic Games under the flag of the ROC, but in 1976 Canada did not allow the Taiwanese team to participate under the name of ROC. 

This came as the People’s Republic of China started being widely recognized diplomatically. The International Olympic Committee then decided to allow Taiwan to compete under an artificially created name and flag, following pressure from Beijing. Thus the ambiguous term “Chinese Taipei,” and a white flag with a logo reproducing some symbols and colors of the ROC flag appeared. It is now the only banner that Taiwanese athletes can compete under.

One of the latest incidents in this fraught history is the campaign against Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who faced numerous misogynistic and baseless attacks about her gender after winning a medal at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. She was widely attacked by the public, by other athletes, and also by UN officials from Russia who contested her female gender.

For more, read: Taiwan embraces Olympic gold medal boxer Lin Yu-ting amid unwarranted gender controversy 

But Lin Yu-ting is not the first Taiwanese athlete to experience high drama as a participant in the Olympic Games. There is also the story of the “Iron Man of Asia,” as C.K. Yang was known for being the first Olympian with a Chinese name to win a silver medal at any Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. His personal history reflects the many changes in names and identities his island has faced over the last 100 years. He was born in 1933 in what was then “Japan's Taiwan” in the Indigenous Amis community. His Amis name was Maysang Kalimud, but he publicly used a Chinese name, Yang Chuan-kwang (楊傳廣) and became known internationally as C.K. Yang. He rapidly emerged in the 1950s as an exceptionally gifted athlete in the Asian Games and won a silver medal at the 1960 Olympic Games after losing by a hair in the decathlon (a competition that combines 10 different track and field events). 

What is remarkable is that he became an intimate friend of US decathlon athlete Rafer Johnson, and even shared the same trainer while competing for the same gold medal. He came second to Johnson in 1960 but returned to Taiwan as a national hero, and became an icon for Taiwan's visibility. But today his home which contains important photo and other archives, is in ruins, and younger Taiwanese do not know his name. There are no major monuments or buildings bearing his name in Taiwan. This is a striking difference with the legacy of Rafer Johnson, an African-American who also started his career as a member of a racially discriminated community, but for fought for civil rights and today is remembered and celebrated as sports and political icon.

To find out more about C.K.Yang's incredible journey and eventual journey to obscurity, Global Voices spoke to filmmaker Frank W Chen (陳惟揚), who recently released a 45-minute documentary movie, produced by Mike Chinoy, the former CNN correspondent in China, that tells the story of C.K.Yang and his inseparable friend and peer Rafer Johnson. Frank W Chen is a Taiwanese-Canadian documentary filmmaker and architectural designer based in New York City and Taipei. The interview took place over email after a public screening of the movie in Taipei. 

Filip Noubel (FN) Whether it is the baseball player Chien-Ming Wang or C.K.Yang, what drives you to tell the stories of Taiwanese sportsmen? 

Frank Chen (FC): Born in Taiwan but having spent most of my life in the US and Canada, I often encounter the need to explain where I was from, what my home country is about. Through its people, food, history, or in general, the memories and stories that I tell, I’ve always made sure to go above and beyond in sharing anything Taiwan related. Having this deep attachment to my homeland, whenever a Taiwanese who’s made it in the US or onto the world stage, I share that pride and proudness as a fellow countryman. These sports documentaries became a perfect medium. They satisfy an urge and an innate desire for storytelling, through audio and visual means, I’m able to not only preserve and extend the story of these Taiwanese athletes to a much broader audience, but also highlight the unique and precarious existence of my homeland.

FN: Why has C.K. Yang been erased from collective memory in Taiwan today? Do you see signs that your documentary might rekindle interest? Do you think Taiwanese authorities will eventually act, repair his Iron House and put him back into the national narrative?

FC: The legacy of C.K. Yang is complex and intricate as it embodied so much of Taiwan’s history in relation to athletic development, politics, Indigenous people and culture.

It was also over 64 years ago that C.K. Yang won his silver medal at the Rome Olympics, so the collective memory of him has definitely faded. I think our film came out at a good time as we celebrate our athletes returning from the Paris Olympics, while the government plans to create a new Ministry of Physical Education and allocate a larger annual budget for sports development. It’s my hope that our film serves to stir up the conversation, calling attention to the proper memorialization of our sporting heroes of the present and the past. So far there hasn’t been much happening, but I remain optimistic. It’ll take a small but dedicated group of people, as well as the family members of Yang in the US and Taiwan to begin moving the needle, preserving Yang’s legacy, repairing the Iron Man House. I would love to play a role in it, or even document the process.

FN: According to you, who are other Taiwanese figures of the North American diaspora (or closely linked to that part of the world, such as C.K. Yang) who deserve to be brought back to the knowledge of younger generations in Taiwan, and in the diaspora?

FC: I’d like to go with the subject of my next film, Yani Tseng, who won a total of 15 LPGA tours and was the top female golfer in the world from 2011 to 2013. She was the youngest golfer ever, male or female, to win five major championships, and was named on Time Magazine’s list of ‘100 Most Influential People’ in 2012. A decade removed from her peak, two hip surgeries later, she is still working to regain form and still competes at the US based LPGA tour. She was a household name back then, one of the original ‘Pride of Taiwan,’ but now largely forgotten by the younger generations in Taiwan. Our film intends to chronicle her rise to stardom, her quest to return to LPGA play after two major surgeries, but more importantly the lessons and learnings from her fall as she opens up to share her battle and struggle with depression.

Chen's documentary is also available on YouTube:

Written by Filip Noubel