Yao Ming shares inspirational stories with SCU students

Basketball megastar Yao Ming, the first Asian player ever in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, brought his professional basketball team Shanghai Sharks to Taiwan for the 2016 Cross-Strait Cup Basketball Invitational in Taipei this October to play SBL Yulon Luxgen. On October 11th Soochow University organized a Yao Ming’s meet-and-greet at SCU for him to share his career stories with students and have lunch in student canteen.

SCU President Wei-Ta Pan explained that Soochow University is keen on promoting physical education and competitions as a way of enhancing life experience for our students, and that’s why we have been holding Soochow University International Ultra-Marathon for 16 consecutive years. SCU is privileged to host the basketball megastar’s arrival and everyone thinks it a great honor to listen to his life stories about how he pursued a career as a professional basketball player.

Dean of Physical Education Department Chieh-Te Tung Fang, a former national player in Yulon Luxgen basketball team, said that SCU’s fervor in promoting cross-strait sports exchange and his previous working relationship with Wen-Ting Tseng, a Shark in Shanghai basketball team, were the keys to Yao’s visit to SCU.

The drizzling weather outside never one bit dampened students’ enthusiasm. The canteen was crowded with young faces excited to see the celebrity in person. Yao later said, this visit reminded him of his campus life, because it was more than 20 years since he last had a meal at school canteen. When the basketball legend stepped into the gymnasium, he was greeted with long-lasting applauses and screaming before sharing his upbeat inspirational stories. During the Q&A, students grasped the chance to ask questions face-to-face with Yao. A basketball fan asked who his greatest opponent was in his career as a professional basketball player. Yao said it was Shaquille O’Neal, and added that strong opponents were often the ones who helped him grow fast. Another student planning to play football abroad, asked for advice on adjusting to new life, got the response; “Young generations today are so adaptable to changes that getting used to new life abroad is never a problem. More importantly, we need to value the goal we pursue as a team more than as individuals.” Yao took a photograph with a philosophy major senior Ying-Hsiu Chen, a wheelchair user and a fan wishing to see Yao in person.

The end of the visit was marked by Yao Ming and President Pan exchanging jerseys from Shanghai Sharks and SCU basketball team.