Hockey

I was free last Saturday, so I went again to the Taipei Arena. Well, not the main hall, but to one on the side, to see a game of the semifinals of the CIHL (Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey League). Yes, ice hockey, in Taiwan. There is an amateur league since 2004, with 9 teams currently, 4 from Taipei and 5 from the rest of the island, and they are playing the play-off games at the Taipei Arena these last few weekends. The game I attended to was the second one of the Hsinchu Raptors vs Taichung Lions series.

Surprising, isn't it?, well, not so much if you think that Chien Chou, the student that was in my office when I arrived here a year ago, and who helped me so much, also played ice hockey. The thing is that there are around 30000 Canadians (or so I was told) in Taiwan, and you probably know that ice hockey is something like a religion in Canada. Most of the players in these teams are probably Canadians, but they are beginning to have many Taiwanese players too.

Through the years, I have watched ice hockey games on TV, when I could, because it is not so easy, and I know the rules more or less, but this was the first time I could see it live. The level was not the same as in the NHL or in an international competition, of course, but I liked it quite a lot. I always found that it is a beautiful sport, when the players race at full speed towards the opposing goal with the puck at the tip of their stick or when they start connecting passes. Despite the cold, naturally, it was very nice.

The funniest part was the audience. Many kids that did not stop shouting and singing songs. Many were probably students of one of the Raptors players, who was received as a real star when the game was over.

That's popularity and the rest does not mean a thing.