V 14 N. 62 What Happened to C.K. Yang? Find Out Here.

 

A few weeks ago, thanks to Bob Darling, I was made aware of a Taiwanese produced documentary on C.K. Yang.  As you may recall,  C.K. was a native of Taiwan and competed for UCLA alongside his teammate Rafer Johnson.  The two of them were the best decathletes in the world in the early 1960's.  C.K. was also a world class pole vaulter when the fiberglass poles were coming into play in that era.  For a short time he held the indoor world record.  But together the two athletes are probably best remembered for their epic battle in the decathlon at the Rome Olympics in 1960.

The documentary is  about C.K.   and his friendship with Rafer Johnson.  It explains a bit about Taiwanese culture and its relationship to China. It also talks about the Cold War era when their rivalry took place.    I did not realise that some Taiwanese consider themselves an indigenous culture surrounded and threatened by assimilation from the mainland Chinese culture.   As you may know, a lot of ethnic Chinese retreated to Taiwan when Mao Tse Tung took over the rule of mainland China.  It's not just a question of land as we are led to believe in the press.  It goes deeper to the roots of the original people of Taiwan of which C.K Yang felt he was part.  

Here is the link to the documentary..  The C.K. Yang, Rafer Johnson Story

In an online intoduction to the film   C.K. is referred to as having Austronesian hertiage.  I had never heard the term and found this definition.

The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages.

For more information I refer you to the following Wikipedia link  Austronesian People

My only criticism of the film is that sometimes when people are speaking Chinese or another language there is not a complete translation in subtitles.  And sometimes some of the cartoon like drawings are used a bit too much.  

Another point that grabbed my attention was that the former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy is seen in the opening of the film and in several other parts.  When my family was living in Beijing in 1989 if we could get to a TV with an international feed we often saw him on the CNN reports from the city during the Tianamen Student Movement.   We would be in the Square in the morning or afternoon and then go back to our apartment block and hope to catch what was being said about the movement overseas.  At one point when being evacuated from Beijing after the crackdown, we were asked to smuggle out some news film by an Australian crew.  Our fight however got cancelled and we had to give back the film.  But two days later when we finally got to Tokyo we saw ourselves on TV there loading up our bags on a truck   In the following link Mike Chinoy describes some of the ways efforts were made to get the story out of Beijing.\

Mike Chinoy Video

George,

I pole vaulted against C.K. Yang when we (OU) went to Texas during the indoor season.  I believe it was in 1962 or 1963.  On one jump he missed the pit and landed on the concrete floor. He landed on his back and I thought he was hurt  badly.  However, he got up and shrugged a bit and kept on going.  What he lacked in form in vaulting, he made up in toughness.  I am not sure but I think Fred Hansen won that indoor meet at Texas Tech.  You probably remember that meet better than me.  

Your old roommate,

Pat Hennessee

Pat, 

I do remember that meet at Texas Tech.   I don't recall his bad landing , but I remember that he lost the World Record to someone who was jumping at another meet that same night.  I gave C.K. the newspaper at breakfast the next morning with the story.  He didn't smile when he saw that headline.  

I found the clippings of him getting the record and then losing it a week or so later.  Saw OU won the 2 mile relay, my first varsity race.  It was an unbelievably slow old board 11 lap to the mile track that was transported around the Southwest for various indoor meets.

George

                              This is where he got the record

                                               This is where he lost it.

Hey, George, 

Re: CK Yang and his interest in his racial origins 

I’m right now reading a book by Hampton Sides about sea captain James Cook, who discovered, among a lot of places, Polynesia. 

On p. 22-23 the author talks about supposed sources of the people who inhabited Polynesia   (Tahiti). He repeats the theory that by the time Cook got there, those that inhabited that area were thought to have migrated by maritime voyages from the island of Taiwan. 

So we have parallel beliefs:  That Tahitians came from Taiwan, and that Taiwanese came from Tahiti!

Walt Mizell

DNA doesn't lie.   Thor Hyerdahl tried to prove that maybe Inca's sailed from Peru to Tahiti and made the voyage on a raft with a sail 'the Kon Tiki'   only to learn fifty years later the DNA evidence proved the contrary.   George

I suspect Austoasian culture is fading away, just as 90% of the world becomes homogenized.

Meb Keflizegi is in town this evening for a talk at a brewery, 5k philantropy to provide beds to kids who sleep on floors. Plan to give him a copy of  Maura’s book with interviews of Eritrian refugees.  Bruce\

All of that is awesome.  You will enjoy Meb and he will enjoy Maura's book.  What a treat it will be to be present.

   I am about to head to UC for the Hall of Fame induction which will include three Olympians including hammer thrower, Annette Echiconwoke.  Kathy is about to head to the Shakespeare Theater so both of us will be where we need to be.

   I'll watch the C.K. Yang video tomorrow.  Bill Schnier