Chou Tien Chen clarified that he did not give the middle finger to Lee Zii Jia at the 2018 Chinese Taipei Open. The Chinese Taipei athlete came out with a video on his Instagram explaining the incident.
The alleged incident happened after the semi-final match between Chou and Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia at the 2018 Chinese Taipei Open.
Chou lost the hard-fought match with a score of 21-17 14-21 22-24. Chou was visibly upset with the result and sat down on the court, this was when Lee approached to hug him. While hugging, Chou seemed to give a middle finger.
The incident came to limelight after a youtube video featuring the clip became viral. This incident had been widely discussed on the internet since.
Chou’s clarification stated, “Hello, I’m Tien Chen Chou. After the game ended, my opponent came to my court to hug me. I then opened my arms, but some of my fingers were blocked, which caused the misleading picture. I didn’t notice that until I saw some people’s sharing of the photos on the Internet.”
“As an athlete, moral always comes first, so I have to clarify the statement in the video clip isn’t true,” Chou added.
Following this statement, Lee Zii Jia made a post on Instagram in support of Chou and showed confidence in Chou’s moral character.
Lee said, “After the game, I took the initiative to run and hug Chou. We were all tired at the time… I believe in Chou Tien Chen’s attitude and character.
“Sometimes the angle of a hug is wrongly shown in videos and pictures. I say this because I felt his sincerity when we hugged. He and I are very good friends in real life.”
