Taiwanese national sports@ BaseBall @

To many people around the world baseball is, like many other sports, also considered a form of entertainment. That’s not the case in Taiwan, however. In this small island nation in East Asia, baseball has never been ‘just’ entertainment to the people.

Take, for example, the two recent losses by Taiwan’s national squad to their Beijing counterparts in the 2008 Olympics and the just-concluded 2009 World Baseball Congress. Many Taiwanese reacted strongly to these setbacks, even calling the defeats “Days of National Shame.” Responding to the embarrassment caused by the teams’ poor performance, the Taiwan government has launched a billion dollar rescue plan to save the game that is largely regarded as the country’s national sport.

Another famous example of the immense impact baseball has on Taiwanese society is the “Wang Chien-ming Effect.” The Taiwan-native New York Yankees ace hurler is far more popular in Taiwan than any entertainer or politician could ever be.

When Wang takes the mound, the country literarily stops to watch. Newspaper advertising rates soar on days when he pitches, and a study revealed that even the Taiwanese Stock market performs better when Wang pitches well.

The above evidence shows that baseball plays an extremely important role in their lives of the Taiwanese people, and the success of local teams or players in overseas leagues is of deep significance to them.

As Andrew D. Morris, a professor at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, who specializes in Taiwan’s baseball history, puts it in his “Savages, Traitors, Budweiser, and a History of Glocalization and Baseball in Taiwan,” an article in Taiwan Historical Materials Studies, “the success of local teams on foreign fields takes on a cosmic significance as Taiwan shows itself internationally a force to be reckoned with.”

Indeed, for a country that has precious little international space and been deprived of membership in most major world organizations due to suppression by China, this simple game has become a wellspring of national pride.


Thus the Taiwan Culture Portal presents a series of feature articles to introduce major events in Taiwan’s baseball history which helped to shape the national sport as it is today.

The baseball series will introduce many nationally and internationally famous baseball players to the world, as well as some of the most important and memorable baseball games for Taiwan’s national team in international events, in order to help English-speaking people to learn more about the sport and the national mania surrounding it.
To begin with, let us take a look at the history of this competitive sport on the island.