Zhao Fengbang (Chao Fong-pang)
Nationality: Taiwan, China
Origin: Zuoying, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan Province (ancestral home of Shandong Province)
Birth date: September 15, 1967
Nickname: Cold Face Killer
Career achievements: Two-time World Men's 9-Ball Championship champion, the first Taiwanese player to win the adult World Championship, the first Taiwanese golfer ranked first in the world, driving billiards to become a recognized professional sport in Taiwan and one of the few professional sports on the island.
Biography: On September 15, 1967, Zhao Fengbang was born in a village in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan Province, and was the youngest child in the family. Zhao Fengbang's childhood was very bumpy, his father, who was once a member of the Nationalist army and navy, died when he was in the country, and his mother died when he was in the middle school. Due to the early death of his parents and the family's financial difficulties, Zhao Fengbang, who was still in the second grade of junior high school at the time, often skipped class and went to the billiard hall to gamble on balls to supplement his family. During this time, Zhao Fengbang also became acquainted with his master Chen Weizhi (now the coach of the Chinese national team). Zhao Fengbang once recalled that time in an interview: "Whenever my brother sent me to the school gate in the morning, as long as my brother left, I would also run to the sloping court to report as soon as I slipped a cigarette." ”
In the Taiwan billiard hall at that time, there was a popular gambling method called "playing cards". At that time, Zhao Fengbang shuttled between the tables every day and relied on "playing cards" to make money. Zhao Fengbang's first club was bought by relying on the thousand yuan earned by "playing cards".
Zhao Fengbang began his billiards career in the second year of the country, and stayed in the pool hall for more than ten hours a day. In the third year of the country, Zhao Fengbang chose to drop out of school and specialize in pool ball. At the age of 16, Zhao Fengbang could already support himself through pool. During that time, Zhao Fengbang once recorded more than 200,000 yuan in three consecutive months. After that, Zhao Fengbang's value was even higher, and at its peak in 1992-97, the average person wanted to play with Zhao Fengbang, and the bet in each game was at least 70,000 yuan. This means that if Zhao Fengbang wins a day's ball, he can get an income of 500,000 to 1 million yuan. In 1986, with the popularity of fancy billiards in Taiwan, Zhao Fengbang gave up the main sport snooker at the beginning, and chose to switch to fancy billiards, Zhao Fengbang began 12 hours of self-training every day, and began to participate in some competitions in Japan and the United States, becoming the first professional golfer in Taiwan.
In 1989, Taiwanese Player Zhang Qiyao won the Osaka 9-Ball Open Men's Championship, becoming the first player in Taiwan's history to win an international tournament. A year later, Zhao Fengbang began to make a name for himself in the professional arena. In 1990, Zhao Fengbang became the king of Taiwan in the "Four Heavenly Kings Challenge" on the island, and became the king of Taiwan. In 1992, Zhao Fengbang won the championship in a billiards World Cup in Taipei. This competition directly allowed the Taiwan authorities to re-examine the positioning of billiards and announced that billiards would be changed from the J7 category of "special industry" to the J8 category of "competitive and leisure sports venue industry".
In 1993, Zhao Fengbang won the World Men's 9-Ball Championship in Königswinter, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He became the first player in the history of taiwan billiards to win the adult World Championship. This year, Zhao Fengbang was also crowned the first place in the men's world ranking. This also makes Zhao Fengbang the first world number one golfer in the history of Taiwan. And his expression without any fluctuations in the game gave him a nickname - cold face killer.
In 1997, Zhao Fengbang, together with Li Kunfang and Zhang Haoping, launched the Taiwan Professional Pool Tournament (Taiwan Professional Collision). In the year-end finals of the career collision that year, Zhao Fengbang won the championship. In 1998, the Bangkok Asian Games for the first time included swimming pool as an official sport. Zhao Fengbang won the gold medal in the men's 8-ball singles event, the silver medal in the men's 8-ball doubles event and the bronze medal in the men's 9-ball singles event at the Asian Games. Since then, Zhao Fengbang's performance in the competition has not been satisfactory due to a hand injury.
In 2000, Zhao Fengbang returned from his injuries. The one-handed brake ball made him famous on the international stage. In the same year, Zhao Fengbang won the World Men's 9-Ball Championship, becoming the first player in the history of billiards in Taiwan to win the Adult World Championship twice, and regaining the throne of the men's world ranking.
In 2001, Zhao Fengbang won the Fancy Billiards World Cup and the International Challenge of the Crown of Champions. However, the weather is unpredictable, and just when Zhao Fengbang's career is booming, he suffers from the most feared disease of billiards players - hyperthyroidism (hyperthyroidism). During the illness, Zhao Fengbang's weight dropped rapidly, and his fingers trembled involuntarily when he held the rod, and at night, severe insomnia continued to destroy Zhao Fengbang. However, the disaster is not alone, just at the same time that Zhao Fengbang fell ill, several of his clubs also closed down one after another, losing nearly 20 million yuan. All kinds of encounters have brought Zhao Fengbang's career to the lowest point.
In 2003, the Philippine Open did not invite Zhao Fengbang to participate, which stimulated the strongest golfer. From this moment on, Zhao Fengbang constantly reminded himself to cheer up. After that, Zhao Fengbang sold his valuable clubs and began to take medicine to treat diseases while carrying out high-intensity training. Sometimes, Zhao Fengbang even went to the Philippines to make a move with local experts.
In 2005, in the International Challenge of the Champions League, Zhao Fengbang replaced Wu Jiaqing, a "Taishan prodigy" who could not participate due to age problems. In the final, he defeated the defending champion, German Engel, by a large score of 2:0 (some competitions in the United States divide the match into separate two sets, similar to the tennis format) and won the Championship Challenge for the third time in his career. He became the first golfer in the history of Taiwan's billiards to win the Championship Challenge three times. Zhao Fengbang held up his club after the game and excitedly said in an interview: "Finally I waited, it feels really good!" ”
In 2011, Zhao Fengbang won the International 9-Ball Invitational Tournament in Hefei, China, which was also the last time Zhao Fengbang won the international championship so far. Nowadays, in addition to occasionally participating in some competitions, Zhao Fengbang spends most of his energy on understanding the game and driving the development of Billiards in Taiwan. After Chen Weizhi stepped down as president of the Kaohsiung Billiards Association, Zhao Fengbang, who took over, continued to promote the development of pool in Kaohsiung City and was committed to pushing billiards to the campus. In 2017, Zhao Fengbang and his commentator partner Zhang Mingxiong founded the Excellence Cup Professional Pool Tournament and broadcast the commentary game live throughout the Internet in order to drive the gradual decline of Taiwan's billiards.
Character Influence: In Taiwan in the 1980s, fancy billiards had just been introduced, but it had become a miasma. At that time, Taiwanese billiards were often associated with words such as gambling, indecency, fighting, fighting, armed fighting, and even killing. Every day, from morning to night, there was constant bloodshed in the pool hall. Flirting with miss scorers, drawing knives against each other for the sake of "winning or losing" (face), etc., are common practices. The emergence of Zhao Fengbang and a group of outstanding golfers has made earth-shaking changes in the style of Taiwan's billiards. By the 2000s, billiards had gained recognition in Taiwan, with a total billiard population of 2 million people, thousands of 24-hour billiard halls, and a total annual revenue of $750 million.
Not only that, under the influence of Players such as Zhao Fengbang, more and more children like pool. Among them, a number of world-class golfers such as Zhang Ronglin, Zhang Yulong, Ke Bingyi, Ke Bingzhong, Zhou Jieyu and so on have emerged, making Taiwan a real island of pool. In addition, Zhao Fengbang also published "The World Ball King and You Knock a Shot, Cold Face Killer Zhao Fengbang" dictated by himself and written by Yu Guan after the Asian Games in Bangkok. In this book, Zhao Fengbang introduced various issues related to billiards in detail, and became one of the teaching materials for many teenagers to learn pool.