Sport in Taiwan has a long history and tradition, it is part of the national collective memory. The Sports Administration makes every effort to promote the preservation of sports culture, through inventory of cultural relics, digital archiving and other methods, preserving the memories of the world of sport. To raise the level of sports cultural preservation work, in 2021, National Tainan University was commissioned to carry out the Sports Cultural Relic Inventory Plan and establish a categorization and classification system; 350 important cultural relics were selected in the first stage and image restoration and optimization carried out to preserve precious sports cultural relics long into the future.

Sports Administration Chief Secretary Lu Hung-chin said that planning for the establishment of a sports digital museum began in 2009 and related sports cultural relics and historical materials were collected and related digital display carried out; in 2017, National Taiwan University of the Arts was commissioned to carry out the Sports Culture Digital Archives Plan to preserve the historical appearance of sports figures and cultural relics by digital archiving. To date, 65 videos of interviews with people have been recorded and images of 656 cultural relics have been digitized.

To enhance cultural relic inventory work, in February 2021, National Tainan University was commissioned to handle the Sports Cultural Relic Inventory Plan; with inventory taken of cultural relics and historical materials held in agencies and schools, private groups and private collections. Books were also published or related commendation events held with the Taiwan Body Culture Society, Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame Association, Taiwan Basketball Hall of Fame Association, and other sports groups.

By the start of this year, 1,303 cultural relics had been inventoried, including 27 relating to the first Taiwanese women to complete at the Olympic Games, Hsiao Chi, 147 relating to “Three Throws Queen” Wu Chin-yun, 677 relating to decathlete Gu Chin-shui, 199 relating to Red Leaf Junior Baseball Museum, and 257 relating to the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association. After selection, metadata sorting and image restoration and optimization, 350 important cultural relics have been selected.

Amongst the inventoried cultural relics are Lifetime Achievement Award received by the late Weng Ming-hui, founder of the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association, in the 2021 Sports Elite Awards. He made a great contribution to sport in Taiwan .In praise of Weng, a film has been made about him; the film will be placed on the Sports Administration Sports Administration Cultural Relic Sports Digital Archive YouTube channel (https://reurl.cc/EpWq7n)at the end of the year.

The Sports Administration invites local government, single sports associations, city and county sports clubs, schools and athletes to join in the work to preserve sports memories. It is hoped that with a joint effort by each professional team and all quarters, through cultural relic inventory, digital archiving, book publishing and data application, we can continue to unearth and enrich sports historical materials and cultural relics. The upgraded Sports Digital Museum website will become operational at year end and will bring people closer to cultural relics, historical material, images and books and fulfil the important mission of passing on Taiwan’s sports culture.