Hakka officials and expatriates cheered on Taiwanese wheelchair tennis player Huang Chu-yin (黃楚茵) at the 2019 South African Spring Open that took place in Johannesburg from Sept. 23 to 29.
On Sept. 26, Huang was visited by members of the Overseas Community
Affairs Council (OCAC), including South Africa-based official Lai Chin-cheng (賴金城) and Uganda-based
official Lin Cheng-liang (林政良), and African Taiwanese Hakka Federation (非洲台灣客屬聯合總會) President Luo Ying-chao (羅應肇).
Huang stated that fundraising for the South African trip was quite difficult because sponsorships are just drops in the bucket. Hence, she specially thanked President Luo for his assistance during her visit to Johannesburg. To encourage her to continue playing tennis, Luo even promised to help Huang fundraise for her next tournament trip.
Huang, who was born to a single-parent household in Taiwan’s Changhua
County, developed her enthusiasm for tennis at an early age and later became an
exceptional tennis player. However, a car accident left her paralyzed from the
waist down during college. Huang was devastated but her passion for tennis drove
her to return to the court. After a decade of dedicated training, Huang turned
herself into an extraordinary wheelchair tennis player.
On Sept. 28, Huang reached the final match at the Johannesburg competition, but unfortunately lost to her opponent. She continued on the tournament circuit by competing in Italy on the next day, and is scheduled to fly to Japan and Brazil to contend for higher world rankings that could qualify her for the 2020 Summer Olympics.