Taiwan Number One ("TAIWAN #1", ), an American gamer ''Angrypug'''s slogan that angered Chinese while playing ''

H1Z1 ''Z1 Battle Royale'' (formerly ''H1Z1'' and ''King of the Kill'') is a battle royale game developed and published by Daybreak Game Company. The game's development began after the original ''H1Z1'' was spun off into two separate projects in early ...

'' in 2015, has since become a buzzword expressing anti-Chinese and pro-Taiwanese sentiment.

Origins

''H1Z1'' was released on Steam's early access program on January 15, 2015. However, the game company did not provide dedicated servers for players from Asian countries such as

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

when dealing with players from all over the world, causing many players from these regions to join the game servers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. This has resulted in a large number of players from these regions joining the US, Europe and Australia game servers. While many players usually gather together because they are accustomed to using the same language, players from

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

and Taiwan occasionally kill each other or even cheat each other in the course of the game due to differences in political awareness, even though they also use Chinese. In the summer of 2017, the game was officially banned from being streamed on all major platforms under the jurisdiction of mainland China. On October 18, 2015, American game streamer ''Angrypug'' deliberately played the ROC (Taiwan) national anthem and displayed the ROC flag by shouting "Taiwan Number One" while playing an ''H1Z1'' game on a

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

broadcast, prompting

mainland Chinese Mainland Chinese or mainlanders are Chinese people who live in or have recently emigrated from mainland China, defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) except for Hong Kong ( SAR of the PRC), Macau (SAR of the PRC) ...

gamers to shout "Fuck" and " 操你妈" in both English and

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

. Taiwanese netizens enthusiastically cheered ''Angrypug'', and afterwards, ''Angrypug'' often shouted "Taiwan Number One" at the game.

Other

On January 26, 2016, American game streamer ''curvyllama'' played ''H1Z1'' on a Twitch broadcast; after ''curvyllama'' killed an opponent, the opponent cursed "操你妈" in Mandarin Chinese, and ''curvyllama'', realizing that the opponent was a mainland Chinese player, fired back with "Taiwan Number One". In August 2017, Taiwan won 26 gold, 34 silver and 30 bronze medals at the

2017 Summer Universiade The 2017 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXIX Summer Universiade ( zh, t=第二十九屆夏季世界大學運動會, p=Dì èrshíjiǔ jiè xiàjì shìjiè dàxué yùndònghuì) and commonly called Taipei 2017 ( zh, t=台北201 ...

, and Taiwan's President

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

shouted "台灣No.1！" to praise the performances of national players such as badminton queen

Tai Tzu-ying Tai Tzu-ying (; born 20 June 1994) is a Taiwanese badminton player. At the age of 22, she achieved world no.1 in the BWF women's singles ranking in December 2016, and has held that title for 214 weeks, the longest in BWF history.See also: N ...

, who was ranked No.1 in the world at the time.為選手喝采小英：小戴太帥、台灣No.1！
, ''

Liberty Times The ''Liberty Times'' is a national newspaper published in Taiwan. Founded by Lin Rong-San, it is published by the Liberty Times Group. The newspaper was first published on 17 April 1980, as Liberty Daily, before adopting its current name in 198 ...

'', 2017-08-30

References

{{Reflist Anti-Chinese sentiment in Taiwan Anti–People's Republic of China sentiment Internet memes introduced in 2015 Video gaming