TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A pro-China Taiwanese bodybuilder challenged popular and brawny Taiwanese vlogger Holger Chen (陳之漢) to a fight on Friday (July 5) over his cross-strait comments, only to skip out on the actual challenge.
Fifty-five-year-old former national bodybuilding competitor Lin Chih-cheng (林志成) on Friday went to the 40-year-old Chen's gym and submitted a letter challenging him to a fight, reported SETN. Lin bragged that he could knock out Chen within 18 seconds.
As early as April, Lin wrote a two-page diatribe accusing Chen of "publishing statements that destroy cross-strait harmony." He even stood outside Chen's gym and took photos of himself holding up the diatribe and threatened to "step on your [Chen's] dead body."
Lin challenging Chen. (Screenshot from Youtube)
In Lin's original diatribe released in April, he wrote:
"Chin Chi-han, Kuan Chang [館長], has repeatedly provoked mainland China, destroyed the harmony between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, madly broadcast live on the internet, and indiscriminately abused President Xi Jinping in public places. Taiwanese young people and children are taught in vulgar language, while the government ignores them and discredits them all over the world.
On behalf of China and Taiwan and the Chinese people all over the world, Lin Chi-cheng supports the peaceful unification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the world-class future development of Taiwanese and the next generation. Today, I am going to step on your corpse. April 18, 2019."
Lin, a self-proclaimed "former bodybuilder, fitness trainer, ultimate fighter, and Taiwan Bodybuilding Association coach," believes that Chen has destroyed "the peace across the Taiwan Strait." On Friday, he challenged Chen to formally fight him on a lei tai (elevated fighting arena, 擂台) on August 18.
Chen (left), Lin (right). (Facebook photos)
Chen on Friday responded in a live streaming broadcast that he was at his flagship branch of the Genghis Khan Fitness Club in New Taipei City's Linkou District waiting for him to come over and fight. However, by 2 a.m., there was no sign of Lin, and in another live broadcast Chen said, "I stopped training for a full day to wait for you. I've waited until 2 a.m. in the morning and you still haven't come and you're not answering your phone. Don't you want to fight? "
Lin later responded by saying that he was teaching his students all day and had no time to answer the phone. Lin claimed Chen knew that he was busy teaching and intentionally said he refused to come over.
Lin then said he wanted to arrange for a formal match in which he claimed he would "beat him to death. I am not guilty and I did not go to his gym to fight. If I beat him to death, I would be [found] guilty."
Exasperated Chen after Lin failed to show. (Screenshot from YouTube)
Chen countered that Lin wanted to live in Taiwan to enjoy its freedom, democracy, and equality, "but constantly spouts about unification and makes the people of Taiwan lose face." "All of your words are just farts. It turns out you're just hiding just like a turtle's grandson [coward]," said Chen.
Last week, Chen accepted another challenge from a Chinese boxer/kickboxer over his support for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). However, there are few signs that this fight will actually take place either.
