Scandal in Taiwan: a vampire trainer forced students to donate blood for the sake of credits (4 photos)

A soccer coach in Taiwan has been accused of forcing female students to donate blood in exchange for academic credits. Otherwise, they could be expelled from the university.





This came to light after a student surnamed Jian from National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) publicly made the accusation. According to her, the coach required students to donate blood too often. She herself did so more than 200 times.



Jian said that 61-year-old Zhou Tai-ying, a well-known figure in Taiwan and a respected soccer coach, threatened to expel students.

The university sessions were tied to the 32 academic credits needed to graduate, and students risked not receiving a diploma or even being expelled if they failed to meet the requirements.

Jian said that during her time at the university, she donated blood more than 200 times in exchange for credits.

Sometimes this involved continuous blood collection for 14 days, sometimes three times a day, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The blood was reportedly collected by untrained staff under the guise of a "research experiment on campus."

In some cases, research subsidies intended for participants were allegedly collected by the coach as "team funds."

"It was a real ordeal of blood and sweat. By the eighth day of blood collection, they could barely find veins on both arms. They even tried to draw blood from my wrist, but to no avail. It was unbearable. I completely broke down. It took six tries before they finally succeeded!" Jian wrote in the post, also sharing a video of herself sobbing during the procedure.

The incident prompted several victims to speak out on social media.





One of the students, whose name has not been released, said she took a leave of absence due to prolonged abuse from the coach.

She said her parents had no idea what was going on and she did not dare tell them: "If my father knew, he would definitely fight the coach. I just didn't want to upset them," the student said.

She added that her father died unexpectedly before she could tell him how she felt.

"I never had a chance to tell him the truth. So forgiveness? Maybe in the next life. My college years should have been happy and promising, but now, looking back, I only feel disgusted," she said.

The controversy on social media was not only about the coach, but also about the university's response.

On July 13, the university released a statement saying it had removed Zhou from administrative and coaching positions and banned her from leading any sports teams.

The university also included a handwritten letter of apology from Zhou.

Zhou wrote, "I sincerely apologize for the damage caused to the affected students, faculty, and the university's reputation. I deeply regret the emotional distress caused to the students and would like to apologize to all of you."



However, the apology letter and official statement were later removed from the university's social media page.

Coach Zhou did not respond to media inquiries, so the exact reason for donating blood and what benefits Zhou received from it are unknown.

The local education authorities imposed an administrative penalty on NTNU, ordering the university to take corrective measures. But on social media, people suggested that the administration knew about the vampire coach because the university benefits first and foremost.

The affected students considered the punishment too lenient because the coach was not prosecuted. On July 15, they held a joint press conference with members of the Democratic Progressive Party and spoke about the scandal publicly.