Exclusive: Taiwan Olympic Legend Finds Her Life Story In Aamir Khan's 'Dangal'
NDTV
Chen clinched gold in the women's flyweight division in Taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, ending a 72-year-long gold medal drought for Taiwan.
"When I watched Dangal with Chinese subtitles a few years ago, I noticed an uncanny resemblance between the wrestlers' father and my own," says Chen Shih-hsin, Taiwan's first-ever Olympic gold medallist.
Chen clinched gold in the women's flyweight division (49-kilogram category) in Taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, ending a 72-year-long gold medal drought for Taiwan. Despite being a self-governing democracy with its own constitution and legislature, Taiwan competes at the Olympics under the fictitious name "Chinese Taipei" - it is neither part of China nor comprised solely of the city of Taipei (which is one of the 23 cities in the island nation).
"My father was a hard taskmaster, much like the father portrayed in the film. I feel he was even tougher on me," shares Chen as she teaches around 100 children at her Taekwondo school in the rural township of Xinfeng, near Taiwan's semiconductor hub, Hsinchu.
