Lee Yang

On April 14, 2026, the Control Yuan published Lee Yang's first asset declaration since taking office as Minister of Sports. Savings: NT$34.01 million. Liabilities: NT$36.38 million — more than NT$2 million greater than his savings.¹ The day before, he had made the bold announcement that he would donate the entire NT$10 million bonus that Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee honorary chairman Lin Hong-dao had personally paid him as a supplemental gold medal bonus; the suggested recipients included ten civil organizations such as the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders, Genesis Social Welfare Foundation, and Eden Social Welfare Foundation.²

That NT$10 million was exactly 30% of his savings.¹

Four days earlier, on the morning of April 9, 2026, he learned from the news that his deputy, Cheng Shih-chung, had resigned.³ When legislator Yeh Yuan-chih questioned him on the floor about whether he had been sidelined, all he could say was that he too had found out that morning from media reports.³

Put these images together, and you see a thirty-year-old person who was simultaneously, within seven months: two-time Olympic men's doubles gold medalist; Taiwan's youngest-ever cabinet minister; the "gold medal minister" who walked away from NT$30 million in endorsement income; a minister "out of the loop" with his own cabinet undermining him; a "demon-slayer" reformer as media dubbed him; and a mortgage holder whose debts exceeded his savings.

This article is not about choosing one of these identities for him — it is about stacking all those faces onto the same picture and seeing clearly.

30-Second Overview

Lee Yang, born 1995 in Taipei, household registered in Guning, Jinning Township, Kinmen County.⁴ His father, Lee Chun-yu (originally named Lee Kai-hu), served in the presidential guard unit at Chiang Ching-kuo's Shuangcheng Street residence and later became deputy chief of the Central Bank security detail.⁵ As a child, he was pushed by his father to practice badminton at Zhonghe Yuantong Temple, where he was told to his face "you're not cut out for badminton."⁴ For three years in junior high, he woke at 5:30 a.m. every day, was carried by his mother on a scooter to the Nanshijiao station to catch the first MRT train, transferred three times across four lines to reach Zhongshan Junior High School in Taipei City — and arrived each day to do the previous night's unfinished homework at the convenience store beside the school gate while waiting for it to open.⁶ In late 2018 he teamed with junior high classmate Wang Chi-lin to form the "Lin Yang Duo"; 2021 Tokyo Olympics men's doubles gold medal; 2024 Paris Olympics title defense — the first pair in Olympic history to win back-to-back men's doubles gold as unseeded entrants.⁷ He retired in September 2024, and on September 9, 2025, became the first-ever Minister of Sports of the Republic of China at age thirty, the youngest cabinet member in history.⁸ In his first seven months in office he faced a deputy's sudden resignation, a women's football petition for a coaching change, an athletics meet nearly cancelled, swimmer Lin Yu-hsu's accusations of Paralympic suppression, and four other controversies. On April 13, 2026, he announced he would donate in full the NT$10 million Olympic bonus that Lin Hong-dao had paid him.²

"You're Not Cut Out for Badminton"

Lee Yang's father, Lee Chun-yu, is a native of Guning, Kinmen — the younger brother of the village chief. Originally named Lee Kai-hu, he passed the second-cohort guards NCO course in 1975 and was assigned as a close-protection guard at Chiang Ching-kuo's Shuangcheng Street residence in Taipei.⁵ He entered the Military Police Academy's advanced program in 1980, graduated first in his class the following year, and after retiring in 1986 transferred to the Central Bank security detail, eventually rising to deputy chief.⁵

Military discipline permeated the household. Lee Chun-yu brought Lee Yang and his younger sister Lee Chih-chen to practice at Zhonghe Yuantong Temple, then enrolled them in the badminton team at Taipei Municipal Shezi Elementary School.⁴ As a child, Lee Yang did not actually like badminton — what he really wanted was to join the handball team, but Zhonghe Elementary's handball squad did not select him.⁴ His father's solution was stricter badminton training.

"You're not cut out for badminton." These are the words his father said to his face.⁴

That was not a motivational goad — his father genuinely thought this child might not make it. But the iron-fist upbringing left behind one habit: Lee Yang was not someone who played badminton out of passion; he played out of discipline. Teammates at the National Training Center later all remembered how he would keep training on his own after everyone else was done. The source of that habit was not some innate impulse, but those mornings his father had carved out for him in front of Yuantong Temple in Zhonghe.

Did you know?
Lee Yang's father is no ordinary serviceman. Lee Chun-yu passed the guards NCO selection in 1975 and was assigned to the Shuangcheng Street residence in Waishuangxi, Taipei — the official residence of then-Premier Chiang Ching-kuo. A Kinmen native who once stood watch at Chiang Ching-kuo's back, he later transferred his understanding of discipline onto a son who originally wanted to play handball. Some subtle corner of Taiwan's postwar authoritarian history refracted, in this way, into an Olympic gold medal.⁵

The Seat at Zhongshan Junior High

Around 2008, Lee Yang enrolled in the badminton program at Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Junior High School. In that cohort was a classmate who was already close to 180 cm tall and could smash at over 300 km/h — Wang Chi-lin.⁹

The two were classmates for three years but never played doubles together. The coach at the time paired Wang Chi-lin with Chen Hung-lin in the "Double Lin Combination" (nicknamed the Kirin Pair), whose world ranking reached as high as fourth; Lee Yang was partnered with another teammate, Li Che-hui, and in 2017 they won the French Open Super Series.⁷ During the same period, Lee Yang and Tai Tzu-ying were both boarding athletes at the National Training Center, though no one in the men's doubles program foresaw that "those two kids from Zhongshan Junior High" would end up as double gold medalists.

Lee Yang's three years in junior high went something like this — as he later described it himself[^23]:

"Every morning I woke up at 5:30. My mom rode the scooter to drop me at the MRT to catch the first train. I had to transfer three times each day: taking the Zhonghe line from Nanshijiao to Guting, switching to the Tamsui line to Taipei Main Station, then transferring to the Bannan line to Zhongxiao Fuxing, and finally taking the Wenhu line to reach Zhongshan Junior High."⁶

"Because Zhongshan Junior High had very high academic standards, the pressure was intense. Every day I was one of the people waiting for the school gate to open — I'd go to the convenience store beside the school first and finish the homework I hadn't completed the day before."⁶

That was the daily schedule of a fourteen-year-old — and even with such an early start, he still felt he couldn't keep up with Wang Chi-lin. He later put it even more plainly:

"Our athletics class had fifteen badminton players. Wang Chi-lin and I were in the same class, but fifteen people naturally split into a top group and a bottom group — those who played well, and those who didn't. I was in the bottom group; Chi-lin was in the top."⁶

"Back then I really wanted to 'catch up' with him, but there was just a gap between us."⁶

That was not modesty — it was the truth at the time. Wang Chi-lin's gifts were height, explosive power, and smash speed; Lee Yang's gift looked more like "the kind of talent that wakes up at 5:30, transfers three times to school, and still does last night's homework at the convenience store."

"We were classmates from junior high — it took nearly nine years before we finally paired up."⁹

There was a moment in between when he almost gave up. In the first semester of his third year at National Keelung Senior High School, Lee Yang could not break into Division A, and was in classic "stuck in the middle" territory compared to peers his age. He later recalled this period:

"I didn't overcome it — I just gritted my teeth through it. The reason I eventually crossed that threshold was that I thought: I'm beyond saving. That mindset was actually good for me."¹⁰

"The worst that could happen was I'd score zero or lose a match. I was just bad, I just couldn't do it. But if today I managed to scrape something out by fighting for it — that's a bonus."¹⁰

Lowering his stance to the floor, treating every moment as simply pushing against his own limits, ultimately cultivated what he called his "philosophy of trying one's best." In the second semester of his final year of high school he clawed his way to third in the nation under a sports admission scheme, earned a spot at the National Taipei University of Business's Department of Business Administration, and that July finally received the Division A registration he had been waiting years for, signed by the Land Bank of Taiwan team.¹⁰

In late 2018, Lee Yang's partner Chen Hung-lin expressed his intention to retire. Lee Yang immediately decided to abandon all his then-current world ranking points and pair up again with his junior high classmate of nine years.⁹ The Lin Yang Duo was born.

The "Academic Probation" at NTUB Business School

Few people know that Lee Yang was one of the rare athletes on Taiwan's Olympic team who did not come from a physical education school. His university was National Taipei University of Business, Department of Business Administration.¹⁰

He himself said: "Actually, on the very first day of college I was ready to go file for a leave of absence."¹⁰ The reason was that the Business Administration department lacked the "flexible academic scheduling" system that PE departments had; there was no way he could practice during the day and attend class at night. Later the department chair personally worked out an exception allowing him to practice in Tianmu during the day and take evening classes at night. Even then, he failed the academic requirements in his first semester.¹⁰

The schedule for those four years was relentless every day: breakfast at 7 a.m., practice at Tianmu from 8:30 to noon, lunch and rest, then more practice until 5:30 p.m., then rushing from Tianmu to NTUB's evening program by bus or scooter, jamming one or two chocolate bars as dinner on the way; class from 6:30 until 9 or 10 p.m., then home to Zhonghe, up again before 7 the next day.

"Why can others slack off after practice, but I have to be this exhausted?" he asked himself.¹⁰

But he didn't quit. Gritting his teeth — gritting on chocolate bars — he passed every semester after that, every subject every time.¹⁰

Curator's Note
In his first year, Lee Yang encountered a senior men's doubles player he greatly respected. When this player heard he was studying business, he said directly: "You're studying and playing badminton at the same time — this kind of thing is useless." This was the second pivotal moment in his life when a senior figure dismissed him (the first was his father's "you're not cut out for badminton"). But this time his reaction was: "So now you can't make it unless you go to a PE school? That makes no sense." Beneath Lee Yang's philosophy of trying one's best lies a very hard streak of defiance: the moment he's dismissed, he doesn't try to prove a point — he just concludes that the rule the other person is citing is itself wrong.¹⁰

Lee Yang's former partner Chiang Yu-wei later described his drive: if the coach set a twenty-ball drill, Chiang would do five extra, and Lee Yang would always match him; after losing intrasquad matches Lee Yang would often demand "one more game" until he at least drew even; he even treated pre-match trash talk about betting drinks as binding — and kept a notebook recording who owed him milk tea.¹⁰

"He's just someone who takes everything seriously, which is why he is where he is today." — Former partner Chiang Yu-wei¹⁰

That notebook recording milk tea debts can probably now also log "which sports federation owes him a budget audit, which deputy minister scheduled a meeting without telling him, which document went through eight rounds of review and still had typos."

"When You Leave the Badminton Court, What Do You Have Left?"

In 2022, someone asked Lee Yang what his most precious takeaway from four years of college was. He thought for a moment and said: "Friends."¹⁰

Those day-program and evening-program classmates who studied with him in hardship, shared notes, and presented alongside him. During low points in competition, they were Lee Yang's emotional backbone. He said: "If you only ever live inside the athletic world, you can only hide in the places where you're accepted — you can't handle people who don't accept you."¹⁰

At the time the reporter also asked him a blunt question:

"When you leave the badminton court, what do you have left?"¹⁰

Lee Yang said that was a question he kept turning over in his mind. In 2022 he didn't know what the answer would be. Three years later we know: it was the chair in the Minister of Sports' office. But that chair brought with it far more problems than the badminton court ever had.

Thirty-Four Minutes

At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Lin Yang Duo entered the tournament ranked third in the world and were placed in what many called a group of death — they lost to Indonesia in their very first group match.⁷ In the knockout rounds they successively defeated the top four seeds, including a comeback win over Malaysia in the quarterfinals, a two-to-one victory over the world number one Indonesian pair of Ahsan and Setiawan in the semifinals, and then meeting China's Li Jun-hui and Liu Yu-chen in the final.⁷

The final lasted thirty-four minutes. First game: 21–18. Second game: 21–12.⁷ When the final shuttle dropped, Lee Yang's backhand just grazed the line. China challenged on Hawk-Eye. Lee Yang's words to Wang Chi-lin were simply: "Don't rush."¹¹

In.

It was Taiwan badminton's first gold medal since entering the Olympics in 1960.⁷ It was also the first time in Olympic men's doubles history that an unseeded pair had won gold.

"We really did it. At first I was so moved I almost cried; then after crying from being moved, I started laughing."¹²

In the three years that followed, their world ranking reached a peak of second (September 27, 2022).⁷

Curator's Note
The four words "don't rush" became Lee Yang's signature. On court, he could suppress his emotions at the most charged moment and wait for Hawk-Eye to rule; off court, facing media questions about Sports Ministry controversies, his reaction was still to first go quiet, then respond — never rushing to take a stance. This is both his greatest strength and potentially his greatest weakness on the political stage: politics is not badminton, and the person who waits for the other side to make the call won't win.

Holding Hands and the Back-to-Back Title

On August 4, 2024, at the Paris La Chapelle Arena, the Lin Yang Duo walked into the gold medal match again. Media called them "Olympic-type players": their tour results were unremarkable, but they always found their level on the Olympic stage.¹³

After the match ended, Wang Chi-lin reached out and grabbed Lee Yang's hand, and the two walked up to the podium together. The camera caught them gripping each other so tightly that memes circulated online asking "are they getting married?" But what they actually wanted people to hear was something else entirely:

"Thank you all for only seeing the good side. We hope to keep showing you the good side — the hardships, we'll carry ourselves."¹⁴

It was the first time in Olympic history that a men's doubles pair had won back-to-back gold medals as unseeded entrants.¹⁴ At the time, Lee Yang's father, Lee Chun-yu, had flown 10,000 kilometers to be there in person — buying his own semifinal tickets at inflated prices without telling reporters who he was.¹⁵

Two Breakdowns at the Taipei Arena

On September 8, 2024, at the Taipei Arena. Lee Yang chose to play the final match of his professional career at the Taiwan Open in Taipei, and held a formal retirement ceremony afterward — the first athlete in Taiwan badminton history to hold an official retirement ceremony.¹⁶

When the big screen began playing a highlight reel of his career, he cried for the first time on stage. He cried again when thanking Wang Chi-lin.¹⁶

"Watching the video, I realized how long I'd been fighting. I originally thought Little Tai (Tai Tzu-ying) would be first to do this."¹⁶

He retired in Taipei rather than Paris — a deliberate choice. That match, he and Wang Chi-lin were eliminated in the round of sixteen without a title, but he said he had nothing left but gratitude for everyone.¹⁶

"You Can't Cross a River Without Getting Wet"

In August 2025, Premier Cho Jung-tai was looking for the first minister to lead the newly established Ministry of Sports. The front-runners had included several veteran sports officials, but Cho ultimately chose Lee Yang.¹⁷

The cost of that decision was concrete: Lee Yang had to give up an estimated NT$30 million per year in endorsement income and the comfortable position of associate professor at the National Taiwan Sport University.¹⁸

His own stated reason was equally concrete:

"You can't cross a river without getting wet."¹⁸

"I don't want to be looking back in five or ten years at a Taiwan sports environment still exactly like this, and regret not having been a little braver back then."¹⁸

Premier Cho's public version was more direct: "Nothing is harder than winning an Olympic gold medal."¹⁷

On September 9, 2025, the Ministry of Sports held its unveiling ceremony at NTU's General Sports Building. Thirty-year-old Lee Yang became the youngest cabinet minister in the history of the Republic of China, with President Lai Ching-te presiding over the swearing-in.⁸ In budgetary terms, the total sports budget for fiscal year 2026 was NT$24.8 billion, NT$7.2 billion more than the year before — a historic high.¹⁹

But breaking down that NT$24.8 billion reveals that the Ministry of Sports could directly allocate only NT$5.192 billion — a NT$342 million increase over the prior year's NT$4.85 billion. The remaining NT$20 billion was distributed across items such as NT$5.4 billion in general subsidies to local governments, NT$9.373 billion in the Sports Development Fund, and NT$3.4 billion across other ministries — funds the Ministry could influence but not directly control.¹⁹

Seven Months, and Three Pairs of Tight Shoes

Lee Yang's first move after taking office targeted individual sports federations — he pushed all federations to establish "Athlete Committees," giving active competitors direct participation in decision-making and making selection processes transparent.²⁰ His second target was the school sports program system: he wanted to work with the Ministry of Education to introduce a model similar to Japan's club sports system, so that middle schoolers wouldn't have to treat athletics as their only path.¹⁹ The most granular but most revealing of his temperament was his third move: he said publicly that he personally proofreads budget documents for four months, because "documents reach my desk having theoretically gone through eight stages of review, but they still have typos."²¹

Media began using the phrase "slaying demons and vanquishing evil" to describe his reform style.²¹ Who were the "demons"? Commentary offered a direct name: "sports corruption" (體邪, tǐ-xié) — those who for years had used nepotism to control sports federations, drawn inflated budgets, and clung to "permanent secretary-general" positions.²²

"The principles of institutionalization and professionalism that Lee Yang raises are like a shaft of sunlight — warming and brightening for the public and for athletes, but intensely glaring for those lurking in the dark corners of the various federations."²²

But between ideals and reality, several cracks appeared in his first seven months — and those cracks came not only from the "sports corruption" side but from within his own cabinet as well.

Commentary eventually distilled it to one line: Lee Yang has, since taking office, been put in three pairs of tight shoes.²³ The first was the athletics open meet nearly cancelled — the Taiwan International Athletics Open, which had been upgraded to a World Athletics Silver Label, was declared cancelled when its budget for new events hit a bottleneck; legislators pointed out that the Legislative Yuan had already passed NT$71.8 billion in new project funding, but Premier Cho Jung-tai had not released the funds.²³ The second was the county magistrate of Changhua personally delivering documents to request a subsidy for building a sports facility, which the Ministry declined.²³ The third occurred on the morning of April 9, 2026: Deputy Minister Cheng Shih-chung submitted his resignation, the Executive Yuan approved it that same day, and Lee Yang learned about it from the news.³²³

Legislator Yeh Yuan-chih said at the hearing that this amounted to stripping the minister of personnel authority.³ KMT legislator Ling Tao stated more bluntly: "The water runs too deep."³ Premier Cho publicly defended Lee Yang: "His emotional intelligence is high; he'll be able to appropriately explain the Ministry's direction in the Legislative Yuan."²⁴

"I was too nervous preparing for the hearing, so I didn't schedule a meeting with him."²⁴

That was Lee Yang's answer to reporters asking why he hadn't met with Cheng Shih-chung the day before. It sounds like someone still learning to speak the language of politics. Because he genuinely is.

Eighteen women's football players had signed a petition in March calling for a coaching change; Paralympic swimmer Lin Yu-hsu publicly accused the Chinese Taipei Paralympic Committee of suppression; and in the same week the athletics meet almost didn't happen, the deputy minister resigned.²⁵

But on April 13 — four days after the deputy's resignation — Lee Yang personally announced that the athletics meet would be revived under the new name "2026 New Taipei International Athletics Open": in keeping with World Athletics' city-naming regulations, it would be held at Banqiao Stadium on June 6–7, maintaining its World Athletics Continental Tour Silver Label (B-grade) qualification.²¹ In other words, he pulled off the first pair of tight shoes himself.

NT$10 Million — Exactly 30% of His Savings

On the same day, April 13, 2026, Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee honorary chairman Lin Hong-dao announced that he would personally pay supplemental bonuses for the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. The formula was "NT$10 million added per gold medal event"; since the Lin Yang Duo competed in men's doubles, two gold medals across two Games yielded a combined supplemental total of NT$20 million for the pair, but Lee Yang's personal receipt was NT$10 million.²²⁶

Did you know?
There are two different figures circulating in the news about whether Lee Yang donated NT$20 million or NT$10 million. Some outlets wrote "2000万全捐" (NT$20 million fully donated), counting the Lin Yang Duo's total as a unit; others explicitly stated "split in half, NT$10 million per person" or "Lee Yang received NT$10 million and decided to donate it all." The correct answer is that Lee Yang personally received NT$10 million and donated it in full. Lin Hong-dao's formula was "NT$10 million per gold medal event"; since the Lin Yang Duo competed in doubles, two gold medals across two Games totaled NT$20 million combined — NT$10 million per person.²²⁶ Note: This NT$10 million personally donated by Lin Hong-dao is completely separate from the National Glory Sports Medal gold medal prize (for which individual gold medalists can choose a one-time payment of NT$20 million or lifetime monthly payments of NT$125,000). The Lin Yang Duo had already selected the monthly lifetime option in 2024; that is an entirely separate fund unrelated to this Lin Hong-dao top-up.²⁷

That evening, Lee Yang posted on Facebook donating the entire NT$10 million and listing suggested recipients: ten civil organizations including the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders, Genesis Social Welfare Foundation, and Eden Social Welfare Foundation.² The post received close to 100,000 likes within a day.¹

"Now that he serves as Minister of Sports, his focus has shifted to systems and environment."²

Hurdler Peng Ming-yang wrote on Threads:

"Two Olympic gold medals, giving up a fortune in endorsements, running off to be a minister — all to make the sports world better, to stand on the front line taking responsibility and pressure for athletes' futures. This is moral greatness. I'm honest enough to say I couldn't do it at the same age." (Peng Ming-yang, Threads post)²⁸

And then, on April 14, 2026, the Control Yuan published Lee Yang's first asset declaration since taking office. The figures:

Savings: NT$34.01 million	Liabilities: NT$36.38 million
Two Olympics + endorsements accumulated	Linkou mortgage + pre-sale housing + car loan

One plot of land and one building in Linkou, New Taipei (purchased in 2022 for NT$23.9 million); one pre-sale apartment signed in 2024 for NT$20.82 million; a NT$1.988 million sedan purchased in June 2025; fourteen insurance policies; NT$3.068 million in fund certificates. Taken together, Lee Yang is a typical thirty-year-old mortgage holder whose liabilities exceed his savings by over NT$2 million.¹²⁶

The NT$10 million he donated was exactly 30% of his savings. Not a "drop in the bucket" donation. A "pulling out one-third of my savings" donation.

It was the same person who said "don't rush" to Wang Chi-lin five years ago. Entirely consistent in style: no decisions at peak emotional intensity — only when certainty arrives. The only difference is that this time he wasn't betting on a Hawk-Eye call; he was betting on an institution that doesn't yet exist, and the amount he wagered was 30% of his life savings.

What He Has Left

In 2022 someone asked him: "When you leave the badminton court, what do you have left?" The 2026 answer looks like this: a minister's chair with no coach to set his pace, three pairs of tight shoes put on him by others, a cohort of opponents called "sports corruption," an asset declaration showing liabilities more than NT$2 million over his savings, and a bank account with 30% of its balance gone to charity.

Young Lee Yang's opponents had names: Li Jun-hui, Liu Yu-chen, Ahsan, Setiawan — every one of them would appear in Wikipedia's seedings table. Minister Lee Yang's opponents have no names: they are "permanent secretary-generals," they are "documents with typos after eight rounds of review," they are "NT$71.8 billion approved by the Legislative Yuan but not released by the premier," they are "deputy ministers submitting resignations that ministers learn about from the morning news."

But he uses exactly the same technique for both kinds of opponents: gritting his teeth.

The fourteen-year-old who woke at 5:30, was dropped off by mom on a scooter to catch the first train, and did last night's homework at the school gate convenience store — who felt he could never keep up with Wang Chi-lin no matter what. The eighteen-year-old struggling in the "stuck in the middle" Division B, who told himself "the fact that I feel beyond saving is actually a good thing." The thirty-year-old minister at his Sports Ministry desk personally proofreading budget documents for four months — the reason is still exactly the same. His philosophy of trying one's best was never about winning to prove something to anyone else; it was about "if you don't even dare try, don't lie to people and say you tried your hardest."¹⁰

Young Lee Yang said "don't rush" to the Hawk-Eye. Minister Lee Yang told the world of sports corruption "I donated the bonus — now what I care about is the system and the environment." Between those two sentences lies twenty years, two Olympic gold medals, a mortgage of over NT$36 million, and a political journey with no coach to set his pace.

Whether that final shuttle will be in or not — there's no Hawk-Eye for this call.

But there is a fourteen-year-old version of him, somewhere right now in a convenience store beside a school gate, opening yesterday's unfinished homework while waiting for the doors to open. When the thirty-year-old walks into the Ministry of Sports every morning, that fourteen-year-old is still on him.

"I hope he can genuinely come to love the game of badminton." — Lee Yang's message to his fourteen-year-old self⁶

---

Further Reading

• Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang (the Lin Yang Duo) — How two junior high classmates rewrote Taiwan badminton history in thirty-four minutes
• Tai Tzu-ying — Women's singles world number one from the same golden generation of Taiwan badminton as the Lin Yang Duo
• Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) — Tokyo Olympics weightlifting gold medalist, another face of Taiwan's Olympic golden generation
• Taiwan's Democratic Transition (台灣民主轉型) — Explains why the Ministry of Sports only became a full ministry in 2025, having previously been the Sports Administration
• Lai Ching-te — The president who presided over Lee Yang's swearing-in, the fourth DPP president

References

1. UDN: Lee Yang's Latest Asset Declaration Revealed — Donated NT$10M Bonus Was 30% of His Savings — April 14, 2026 Control Yuan publication of Lee Yang's first asset declaration since taking office: savings NT$34,012,998, liabilities NT$36,385,451; donated NT$10 million equaling 30% of savings; Facebook post received close to 100,000 likes in one day.↩
2. Storm Media: Lin Hong-dao Pays Olympics Bonus Out of Pocket! Lee Yang Announces He'll Donate "Double Gold" NT$20M in Full: "Now I Care More About the System and Environment" — April 13, 2026 event, including Lin Hong-dao's decision to personally pay the supplemental Olympic bonuses, Lee Yang's Facebook announcement of full donation with suggested recipient list, and the quote "now what I care about is systems and environment."↩
3. TVBS News: Deputy Cheng Shih-chung Resigns as Sports Ministry Deputy Minister — Lee Yang Learned from the News; Blue Legislators Charge Personnel Authority Stripped — April 9, 2026 breaking news, including Legislator Yeh Yuan-chih's questioning of Lee Yang about sidelined personnel authority, and Lee Yang's own statement that he learned from media that morning.↩
4. NOWnews: Lee Yang from Kinmen! Father Lee Chun-yu's "Iron Discipline" — Once Said: "You're Not Cut Out for Badminton" — Reports on Lee Yang's Kinmen Guning family background, childhood practicing at Zhonghe Yuantong Temple, failing to get selected for the handball team and switching to badminton, and the direct quote of his father saying "you're not cut out for badminton."↩
5. ETtoday Sports Cloud: Lee Yang's Father Was a "Shuangcheng Street Inner Guard" Who Closely Protected Chiang Ching-kuo — and Won a Doubles Title with His Son Too — Details Lee Chun-yu (originally Lee Kai-hu) passing the 1975 guards NCO selection, serving as a guard at the Shuangcheng Street residence of then-Premier Chiang Ching-kuo, and his full career through retirement in 1986 to deputy chief of the Central Bank security detail.↩
6. The Reporter for Kids: Letters to My 14-Year-Old Self — Lee Yang — Lee Yang's full interview in the youth version of The Reporter, with verbatim text: "Every morning I woke up at 5:30. My mom rode the scooter to drop me at the MRT to catch the first train. I had to transfer three times each day: taking the Zhonghe line from Nanshijiao to Guting..." plus his self-description of being "in the bottom group" among fifteen badminton players in his athletics class, and his message to his fourteen-year-old self: "I hope he can genuinely come to love the game of badminton."↩
7. Wikipedia: Lee Yang (badminton player) — Covers Lee Yang's birth date (August 12, 1995), career start, partnership history with Li Che-hui and Wang Chi-lin, all match records at Tokyo and Paris, and peak world ranking of second (September 27, 2022).↩
8. Taipei Times: Sports Ministry, Headed by Lee Yang, Launched — First-hand English report documenting the September 9, 2025 official launch of the Ministry of Sports and Lee Yang's becoming the youngest cabinet minister in ROC history.↩
9. CNA: Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, Former Classmates, a Made-in-Heaven Match — Reached the Top of Their Sport in Just Two Years — Details Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin being classmates at Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Junior High School, their pairing in late 2018, the birth of the Lin Yang Duo, and the quote "we were classmates from junior high — it took nearly nine years before we finally paired up."↩
10. Cheers Magazine: Lee Yang Confirmed as Minister of Sports! He Recalled: Not Taken Seriously by Seniors, All He Could Do Was Grit His Teeth — Interview by Chang Shao-min in 2022, updated before the Ministry announcement in 2025. Full-length cover feature including the core quote of his philosophy of trying one's best ("the fact that I feel beyond saving is actually good for me"), first-semester academic probation at NTUB Business School, senior men's doubles player's dismissal ("studying and playing at the same time is useless"), former partner Chiang Yu-wei's perspective on the milk tea notebook, the question "when you leave the badminton court, what do you have left?", and college friends as the most precious four-year harvest.↩
11. Business Today: The Lin Yang Duo's Decisive Point Was "In" for the Gold! Olympics Trivia: How Does the Hawk-Eye System Work in a Match? — Documents the Hawk-Eye ruling on the final shuttle in the Tokyo Olympics men's doubles final and Lee Yang's words to Wang Chi-lin at that moment: "don't rush."↩
12. Mirror Media: Paris Olympics — A Perfect Final Chapter! Lee Yang's Post-Retirement Direction Revealed — Contains Lee Yang's direct quote from post-Paris interview: "We really did it. At first I was so moved I almost cried; then after crying from being moved, I started laughing."↩
13. Sports Vision: Olympic Badminton Men's Doubles Back-to-Back — Why Is the Lin Yang Duo Called "Olympic-Type Players" This Time? — Analyzes the gap between the Lin Yang Duo's tour results and their Olympic performance, and tactical readings of their Paris back-to-back title.↩
14. CommonHealth: Gold Medal In! The Lin Yang Duo Win Paris Olympics First Gold — Holding Hands, Choking Up: "The Good Side We Show Everyone, the Hard Parts Are Ours to Bear" — Contains Lee Yang's full quote from the Paris podium: "Thank you all for only seeing the good side. We hope to keep showing you the good side — the hardships, we'll carry ourselves."↩
15. UDN: Olympics Badminton — A Father-Son Bond Across 10,000 Kilometers: Lee Yang's Father Flies Across the Ocean to Cheer His Son On — Reports on Lee Chun-yu flying to Paris to support Lee Yang, paying inflated prices for semifinal tickets out of his own pocket, and quietly not revealing his identity to reporters.↩
16. Yahoo Sports: Taipei Badminton Open — Retirement Ceremony Kicks Off with Tears! Lee Yang: "Watching the Video, I Realized How Long I'd Been Fighting" — Details the September 8, 2024 retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena, Lee Yang's two emotional breakdowns on stage, his farewell to Wang Chi-lin, and his status as the first athlete in Taiwan badminton history to hold an official retirement ceremony.↩
17. ETtoday Sports Cloud: Breaking News — Reason for Lee Yang Serving as Minister Revealed; Cho Jung-tai: "Nothing Is Harder Than Winning an Olympic Gold Medal" — Contains Premier Cho Jung-tai's public explanation of choosing Lee Yang and the quote "nothing is harder than winning an Olympic gold medal."↩
18. Business Weekly: Giving Up NT$30M in Endorsements to Enter Politics and Take On Athletes' Problems — Lee Yang: "You Can't Cross a River Without Getting Wet" — Cover story containing Lee Yang's full pre-ministerial interview, including the "you can't cross a river without getting wet" quote, his decision to forgo NT$30 million in endorsement income, and his style of personally proofreading budget documents for four months.↩
19. The Reporter: The Ministry of Sports Is Born! The Challenge for "Gold Medal" Minister Lee Yang: Of NT$24.8 Billion, How Much Does He Actually Control? — In-depth investigative report breaking down the real composition of the NT$24.8 billion budget (the Ministry's direct control is only about NT$5.192 billion), Lee Yang's federation reform plan, and critics' assessments that personnel changes were "changing the packaging, not the content."↩
20. EBC News: Lee Yang Fires the First Shot of Reform! Federations to Let Athletes Participate Directly — Ministry Confirms — Reports on Lee Yang's first reform action after taking office: requiring all individual sports federations to establish "Athlete Committees" giving active competitors direct participation in decision-making.↩
21. Liberty Sports: Lee Yang Takes Charge of Ministry of Sports for 7 Months, "Demon-Slaying" Reform Has Made Many Enemies — Liberty Times in-depth report recording Lee Yang's seven months in office being dubbed "demon-slayer" by media, the Business Weekly interview quote "documents reach my desk having theoretically gone through eight stages of review, but they still have typos," and the April 13, 2026 announcement reviving the cancelled Taiwan International Athletics Open as the "2026 New Taipei International Athletics Open."↩
22. ETtoday Opinion: Lee Yang's Sports Reform, "Sports Corruption" Resists Change — Opinion piece naming Lee Yang's reform opponents "體邪 (sports corruption)" (those who for years used nepotism to control sports federations, drew inflated budgets, and clung to permanent secretary-general positions), including the passage "the principles of institutionalization and professionalism that Lee Yang raises are like a shaft of sunlight — intensely glaring for those lurking in the dark corners."↩
23. United Daily News Black and White Column: Who Is Putting Lee Yang in Tight Shoes? — Editorial compiling Lee Yang's post-inauguration experiences into "three pairs of tight shoes": (1) the Taiwan International Athletics Open cancellation (Cho Jung-tai withholding NT$71.8 billion in approved new project funding); (2) declining Changhua County Magistrate's documents requesting sports facility funding; (3) Lee Yang learning from the news about deputy minister Cheng Shih-chung's sudden resignation. Points to Premier Cho Jung-tai as the one actually putting on the tight shoes.↩
24. TVBS News: Video — Disputing Deputy's Sudden Resignation "Ambush"; Lee Yang: Was Too Nervous Preparing for the Hearing to Schedule a Meeting; Hsiao Bi-khim's Presence Read as Show of Support — Lee Yang's personal response to the deputy resignation, including the direct quote "I was too nervous preparing for the hearing, so I didn't schedule a meeting with him," and Premier Cho's public "his EQ is high" defense.↩
25. UDN: Observatory — "Two-Gold Minister" Lee Yang Seven Months In, Still Out of the Loop — Compiles the multiple controversies Lee Yang encountered in his first seven months: the petition of eighteen women's football players for a coaching change, Paralympic swimmer Lin Yu-hsu's public accusation of suppression, the Taiwan International Athletics Open nearly cancelled for funding, and the Cheng Shih-chung resignation.↩
26. ETtoday Political News: Lee Yang's First Asset Declaration — NT$34.01M in Savings, NT$36.38M in Property Debts — Lists details of Lee Yang's first asset declaration: Linkou land and building (purchased 2022 for NT$23.9M), one pre-sale apartment signed in 2024 for NT$20.82M, NT$1.988M sedan purchased June 2025, 14 insurance policies, NT$3.068M in fund certificates, total liabilities NT$36.385M, primarily mortgages and pre-sale housing loans.↩
27. UDN: Olympics Badminton — Two Gold Medal Bonuses Calculated Separately, the Lin Yang Duo Can Receive NT$250,000/Month + Wikipedia: National Glory Sports Medal — National Glory Medal rules: each Olympic gold medal individually grants the option of a one-time NT$20M payment or NT$125,000/month for life. The Lin Yang Duo's two gold medals are calculated separately; those who chose the monthly option receive NT$250,000/month per person for life. This fund is completely unrelated to the NT$10 million personally donated by Lin Hong-dao on April 13, 2026 — they are two entirely separate bonus sources.↩
28. SETN San Li News: Lee Yang Donates NT$10M to Charity in Bold Move! Hurdler Praises "Moral Greatness" — Reports on hurdler Peng Ming-yang's Threads post praising Lee Yang: "Two Olympic gold medals, giving up a fortune in endorsements, running off to be a minister... I'm honest enough to say I couldn't do it at the same age."↩