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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Japanese table tennis star to wed Taiwanese ‘prince’
Japanese table tennis star Ai Fukuhara, left, and Taiwanese table tennis player Chiang Hung-chieh, are featured on the front page of a Japanese newspaper yesterday. Photo: CNA
NO SWITCH PLANNED: Taiwanese netizens called for her to play for her husband’s nation, while Chinese said that she should have married one of their athletes
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Japanese reports yesterday said that Ai Fukuhara, Japan’s top female table tennis star, has registered to get married to her Taiwanese boyfriend, Chiang Hung-chieh （江宏傑）.
Fukuhara and “Taiwanese table tennis prince” Chiang registered their marriage at a local government office in Tokyo sometime last week, reports said.
Fukuhara and Chiang, both 27, have been in a stable relationship for more than a year, the reports said.
According to the reports, the two did not “rush into marriage,” and will continue to focus on their table tennis careers and take part in major tournaments.
Neither of them plan to change their nationality, Japanese sources said, with Fukuhara to retain her maiden name, while both will continue to represent their respective countries at international competitions.
With Chiang playing in the Czech Republic, reporters spoke to his coach, Lin Chung-hsiung （林忠雄）.
“Chiang has been very low-key about his relationship with Fukuhara, so the news came as a big surprise to me and the other players,” Lin said.
“Even we did not know about their official registration for marriage in Tokyo,” Lin said.
Lin said that Chiang’s family has planned a Taiwanese-style wedding banquet for friends and relatives later this year.
Sports fans and officials hailed the news and sent messages of congratulations, saying Chiang had won over Fukuhara’s heart, while there were calls for the Olympic bronze medalist to become a “daughter-in-law of Taiwan” and for her to represent Taiwan.
However, reactions in Japan, where Fukuhara is a popular sports figure with several commercial endorsement deals, and China, where she has celebrity status, were more muted.
Japanese reports said it was a “status-gap marriage,” a Japanese term referring to a couple having significant disparity in their incomes, social status and personal values.
It was reported last month that Japanese table tennis officials did not want Fukuhara to marry Chiang because of the “status gap” and wanted her to concentrate on leading Japan’s table tennis team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
The Japanese Table Tennis Association denied making the remarks.
Commentators in Japan said that Fukuhara should represent her home nation at the Olympics, while reports said that Japan does not recognize dual citizenship, pouring cold water over suggestions by Taiwanese officials that she should be granted Taiwanese citizenship and switch allegiance.
Netizens in China expressed resentment and disappointment over Fukuhara marrying a Taiwanese, with many saying they felt “betrayed” by her choice and that she should marry a famous Chinese athlete instead.
Fukuhara is popular in China because she is fluent in Mandarin after training in China from an early age, while she has friends among China’s top table tennis players.
She also writes in Chinese on a Chinese microblogging Web site, which has more than 2.1 million followers.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
