In the past week, Taiwanese people showed a lot of emotion on social media because of the national team’s victory in the 2024 WBSC Premier 12. Various touching messages, apology messages (Note 1), and congratulatory messages were posted in the supermarket. , retail industry and mass merchandisers have launched various buy-one-get-one-free offers to celebrate the championship, and some netizens have initiated activities to set the championship day as a national holiday.
The next day, the Ministry of National Defense dispatched four Air Force F16-V fighter jets to accompany the delegation back to Taiwan, and Vice President Hsiao Meiqin personally came to pick them up. On November 26, the “Valley of Heroes Parade” started in front of the Presidential Palace and celebrated in the center of Taipei. Even though it was a working day, 50,000 people still poured into the parade route.
This scene may be quite confusing to Chinese speakers from other countries. How did this sport, which has no obvious cultural origins with Taiwan, take root? And why do everyone from politicians to ordinary netizens overwhelmingly associate victory or defeat with Taiwan’s identity? It is not uncommon for emerging and disadvantaged countries to look forward to their performance on the sports field, hoping to be seen by the world and make their citizens proud of it. However, for countries like Taiwan, baseball is regarded as the “national sport” and is deeply embedded in the process of forming national identity. , is indeed an extremely special phenomenon.
The relationship between Taiwanese people and baseball is a series of continuous interactions and distances from colonization to confrontation, and the search for subjectivity in different national myths. This article will sort out what role baseball has played in the awakening and formation of Taiwan’s consciousness, and why it has become a container that can condense and carry Taiwan’s identity.
Every historical moment in modern times has been accompanied by baseball.
In 1895, baseball was introduced to Taiwan with the Japanese colonization. At first, public schools in the north were mainly used in public schools. Important production bases of the colonial economy, such as sugar factories, also formed baseball teams. During the non-planting season from May to September every year, baseball teams were formed. When various sugar factory teams were practicing and holding exchange games, Tainan became another baseball base; at that time, baseball was still a sport exclusively for the Japanese.
Beginning in the 1920s, with the implementation of imperial education, baseball teams were established in primary and secondary schools, and some scholarsResearchAccording to historical data at the time, Japanese sports journals described this move as “instilling the Japanese spirit and allowing the Taiwanese people to engage in sports under the sun and on the earth together with the people of the island.” It did not hide its intention to use modern sports to “discipline” the colonized people. body, to achieve the purpose of cultural assimilation.
However, at that moment, the colonized people realized that once they stood on the court, under the rules of the game, it was possible to be on an equal footing with the Japanese. On the one hand, local Taiwanese players are learning the bushido-style “wild ball” spirit from Japanese coaches. On the other hand, the experience of working together and playing against each other in teams on the field has gradually developed the self-esteem and self-confidence of “we can do it.”
In 1931, just three years after its establishment, the Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry Baseball Team, composed of Japanese, Han and aboriginal people, reached the Koshien finals in one fell swoop. The fighting spirit of the team from a remote colonial school shocked the country, and the Japanese media praised it as “the best team in the world.” Farmers”. In the official narrative from the perspective of the colonialists, this is proof that different ethnic groups can work together, and the influence of this game on Taiwanese people is also unprecedented, especially after the Wushe incident in which the aboriginal people armed themselves against Japan. However, its political Its significance and impact on Taiwanese people were once forgotten in history.
The 2014 movie “KANO” directed by Ma Zhixiang and produced by Wei Desheng took the historical events from the formation of the Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry Baseball Team to their march into Jiaziyuan as the main axis, rekindling the memory of the people and overthrowing the past KMT-led rule of red leaves and The Golden Dragon Little League team is the myth of the starting point of Taiwanese baseball. “KANO” breaks the respective imperial perspectives of Japan and the Kuomintang. “Tianxia Kanong”, which was once regarded as a model of colonial domestication, has a voice that belongs to Taiwanese: an imperial frontier team came to the highest palace of modern bushido spirit and shocked into the hearts and minds of the people at the center of the empire. When Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry obtained the qualification to represent Jiaziyuan, it simultaneously challenged the advantage of the north, which had been the political and economic center since the Qing Empire.
To a great extent, the film restores the hazy formation of Taiwan’s consciousness in the moments when every household huddled in front of the radio, held their breath as the game was broadcast, and then shouted loudly. The team’s motto derived from hard training: “Don’t just think about winning, think about not losing” also accurately captures the ups and downs of Taiwan’s move towards democratization from the 1930s to the 1980s, and silently runs through the resistance. The belief that is the foundation of will.
After World War II, the Kuomintang in power did not attach much importance to baseball, and national resources shifted to basketball. At one time, there was even a division between “people from this province play baseball and people from other provinces play basketball.” Due to restrictions on traveling abroad and military service, the local players originally trained in Taiwan began to challenge the Japanese profession in the late 1930s, and they fell silent. Fortunately, the results of the widespread establishment of teams in schools at all levels are gradually showing up in the international arena. First, in 1968, the Hongye Baseball team defeated Japan’s Kansai Little League team, which was known as the world’s best, in two consecutive games. The following year, the Golden Dragon Little League team The first time he stood on the international stage, he reached the Williamsport finals (Little League World Series) and won the championship.
Since the 1960s, Taiwan’s international situation has also deteriorated, and Taiwan has been defeated in the competition between the “two Chinas” for representation. In 1971, the United Nations passed Resolution 2758, which recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China (but did not touch Taiwan’s positioning). Taiwan encountered unprecedented difficulties because the Kuomintang government insisted on walking around the world in the name of the Republic of China. In the most difficult 1970s, the international arena of three-level baseball (Little League, Youth Baseball, and Youth Baseball) became the most important channel for the “Chinese nation” to express its voice to the world. The government even encouraged children of the three armed forces to join baseball and required Public banks and state-owned enterprises began to establish adult baseball teams, and baseball became almost the only remaining opportunity to “be seen by the world.”
In 1974, Taiwan held all three-level baseball championships in the same year (note: the Lide Little League team, the Meihe Youth Baseball team, and the Chinese Youth Baseball Stars team composed of Meihe, Huaxing, BSU, East Asia and other schools), becoming an unprecedented Triple Crown. In that “turbulent” era, Taiwanese people once again stayed up late watching the international games on the TV, soothing the sadness of becoming an international outcast and trying to get rid of their low self-esteem.
At the same time, because the international arena is not controlled by the Kuomintang, it has become the stage where Taiwanese people fighting for democracy and freedom have the best opportunity to speak out. In 1971, the “Taiwan Independence Alliance” hired a small plane with banners saying “Long Live Taiwan Independence Go Go Taiwan” to fly over the stadium during the Williamsport final. The slogan “Go China” promotes that the Republic of China is the orthodoxy. However, Taiwanese who have avoided overseas due to the Japanese occupation and political persecution by the Kuomintang also actively went to watch the games and shouted “Taiwan” loudly on the sidelines (Note 2).
The dark side of nationalism
The national team, which is burdened with the pressure of “national football” and “national rejuvenation”, has a huge burden that cannot be lost, so it takes advantage of various system loopholes, such as lying about age to let overage players play, and using military-style training methods. Outperform athletes of their own age. Players have grown up in high-pressure and authoritarian methods, burning out their passion for baseball. Once they are injured or enter a bottleneck period, they will be quickly abandoned by the utilitarian-oriented team. Not many players can last until they become a baseball player.
This kind of development method that treats players as tools naturally does not care about protecting the players’ talents and physical and mental development. In order to compete for resources, media attention and create “national heroes”, various teams frequently used poaching methods, threats and inducements. Along with the gambling craze after the economic boom, it also led to the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s continuous involvement in lottery gambling, The development of match-fixing and underworld gun-toting has created hidden dangers.
As Taiwan has become one of the “Four Asian Tigers” through export trade and economic development, baseball’s role in building national self-esteem has gradually faded away. The players who were trained and “survived” in the third-level baseball also began to develop into baseball players. After a break of more than 30 years, Li Zongyuan finally went to Japan Professional Baseball to develop again. Later, players such as Gao Yingjie, Li Laifa, and Guo Yuanzhi all came to Japan. Japan has achieved good results.
In 1981, the Lausanne Agreement resolved the dispute over representation between Taiwan and China (Note 3). Although the team was dubbed the humiliating “Chinese Taipei” team, it was finally able to return to the international arena, although its performance was not as good as that of twenty years ago. The Little League baseball team shines brightly, but He also often has excellent works, defeating the Korean team in the 1983 Asian Championships, defeating the Japanese team in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and defeating Japan twice again in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, winning Taiwan’s second Olympic silver medal in history. .
However, after leaving the international arena, a large number of outstanding players were lost overseas. The players who stayed in Taiwan could only join the state-owned professional teams and live a life similar to that of civil servants. In 1990, Hong Teng-sheng, who loved baseball and started his career by running restaurants, initiated the establishment of the “Chinese Professional Baseball League” and established the Brothers Elephants. Taiwan also became the third country in Asia to have a professional baseball team.
The good times did not last long. After the initial prosperity and the resumption of baseball craze, decades of culture, unhealthy training and vicious competition in order to win, and the operators still regard the team as a subsidiary image of the company. In order to operate without losing money, the treatment of professional players is not much better than that of ordinary working-class people, and labor rights are not protected. It is normal to have salary cuts due to injuries and losses.
Various factors have successively corroded the young Chinese Professional Baseball League. From 1996 to 2009, a total of five large-scale betting and match-fixing cases broke out, breaking the hearts of fans, and the team was successively sued for player misconduct. Many, the image is damaged, a large number of viewers are lost and the company cannot bear the loss, and is facing disbandment. Baseball has changed from a national sport to a national shame, and fans can’t hold their heads up.
Wang Chien-min, the major leagues, and a new generation of fans: Taiwan baseball’s rebirth
With the ups and downs of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, sad fans have turned their attention to Taiwan’s foreign players. Chen Jinfeng, Cao Jinhui, Wang Jianmin, and Guo Hongzhi successively stepped onto the American Major League Baseball Stadium, which is regarded as the top of the world, and TV stations also normalized the broadcast of Major League Baseball games. From 2005 to 2008, Wang Jianmin had his most glorious three years in the major leagues. In 2006 and 2007, he set a record of 19 wins in two consecutive seasons. While playing for the Yankees, he was once nominated for the Cy Young Award, the highest honor for pitchers. From the Wang Chien-min craze, Taiwanese people have regained the feeling of staying up late and going baseball crazy. Every time Wang Chien-min wins the winning pitch, they rush to collect the special front-page issue of Apple Daily (Note 4) early in the morning.
Many changes are also taking place quietly. The new generation of fans’ love for foreign players is more about supporting their career development than whether they play for the national team. Especially when we look at the situation of Guo Hongzhi. This genius who hit a fastball of more than 150 kilometers in high school and whose defensive rating was once close to that of a Cy Young Award winner, suffered injuries due to poor training concepts in Taiwan in his early years and received a total of eight handicaps in his career. Although he was awarded the title of “Phoenix” after undergoing an operation, it also made fans extremely distressed.
More and more people are realizing that the “Light of Taiwan” popularly reported in the media at that time, whether they are athletes or talents who shine in different fields, have overcome the hardships of being unknown on their own. The moment they become famous, The country is more like “taking advantage” than actually making any contribution to them. With the resentment and impatience caused by this kind of glory-seeking behavior, public opinion has also turned to discuss the training of sports talents and the reform of the system.
The joy of American professional baseball culture, the atmosphere of being a local leisure center, and the deep connection with the local community have gradually infected fans who still do not give up on Taiwanese baseball through game broadcasts and reports. The sluggish Chinese Professional Baseball, It’s also time to wait for the second generation of team owners who bring new concepts into management. Lamigo Momo Team (now the predecessor of Lotte Momo Team) has improved the stadium facilities, jerseys, and cheer songs, and imitated the Korean model to create exclusive cheerleading teams and exclusive peripheral products, pioneering “desktop cheer” and greatly increasing the fun of watching football. It also caused other teams to follow suit.
Lamigo was not the richest team at the time, but it became a pioneer in transforming Chinese professional baseball and out of the gloom of the past. With professional baseball audiences returning and new fans joining in, Taiwan ushered in the third World Baseball Classic in 2013. This is Taiwan’s strongest lineup since the International Olympic Games allowed professional players to participate in international events. In addition to playing for In addition to Wang Jianmin and Guo Hongzhi from the major leagues, and Yang Daigang from the Japanese professional team, nearly half of the players in the team have overseas experience. During the Classic, the TV broadcast ratings reached a peak of 24.8. Although they ranked eighth in the end, Taiwanese people fell in love with baseball again and invented “eating pot stickers” (Note: Taiwanese fans often cheer themselves up with “It’s a shame to lose”) Or self-deprecating, which is similar to the name of the pot sticker chain brand “Wanghailong” (hence the saying “eating pot stickers”) and other new terms to express appreciation for the players’ glory despite defeat.
Fans still want to see the national team win, but they also want to see the players be healthy, play happily and enjoy the game. In the past, national honor was a heavy burden on the shoulders of Taiwanese baseball players. Whether they wanted to or not, they had to become a tool for exporting national sentiment, and even carried a symbol of “Free China.” After passing through the days when baseball became a shame and a laughingstock, the renewed baseball craze has the connotation of “we are together”. Fans are willing to accompany the players to win together, lose together, shout together, and go to the stage where their skills can be displayed.
That was when Taiwan was once again at a crossroads in history, at a moment of dual decision-making regarding political identity and economic development direction. In the 2.0 version of the “national football” field, players are no longer tools to bear honor and disgrace, but first and foremost, their efforts as a person are seen and recognized. It is no longer “should” win glory for the country, but a thank you to the athletes for their willingness to accept Call up.
After the classic game, the national team’s logistics were not in place, players were not fully guaranteed to fight for the country, and the coaching team’s outdated concepts were also exposed one by one, which aroused the anger of fans and ignited the opportunity for sports reform. The younger generation of fans face the shadows and point out that the past lack of attention to player development, team management, and players’ labor rights in the professional baseball ecosystem is the main reason for the unhealthy trend of lottery betting. Just like the democratic system, they have the courage to criticize and support Those who are willing to do the right thing will no longer tolerate the interests of the country and no longer accept the suppression of personal rights and interests in the name of unity and discipline.
With the support of fans and public opinion, retired and current players began to devote themselves toplayers unionpromote the improvement of the salary system, the agent system, and improve the international competition recruitment rules, negotiate with the team on unreasonable regulations, and further challenge the Chinese Baseball Association, which holds the right to participate in international competitions and form teams, and require it to carry out comprehensive reforms. Fans lead the public to actively discuss and participate. At the same time, new fans are constantly being attracted to the stadium, making the team more willing to invest in team construction. Although the average salary of players is still lower than that of American and Japanese professional baseball, there is no longer any worries. Injured people also enjoy basic living and medical protection.
Capital investment and changes in business concepts have made baseball stadiums no longer just for games, but a good place for family leisure. Friends can meet at the stadium to drink beer and watch the game, or to watch their favorite cheerleaders.professional performancetaking children to interact with mascots during holidays has become a new daily routine for fans.
In the past ten years, baseball has completely gotten rid of the bad habit of being dubbed by the Taiwanese as an “evil society” (Note 5). It enjoys the power to decide the training for the Asian Olympic Games but is not a member of the team. It has also spread this fire to other sports such as taekwondo, badminton, and tennis. It also includes the Chinese Olympic Games and the National Sports Training Center, which have experienced a new life after the Tokyo Olympics and Paris Olympics.
These changes occurred closely with the establishment of Taiwan’s identity and the natural independence generation becoming the mainstream. The policy thinking of different political parties and whether they take Taiwan’s subjectivity as the main policy axis are indeed crucial to sports reform, but more importantly, the players The awareness of rights and interests has increased, and more and more mature citizens can look at the results of the national team from a normal perspective, instead of parasitizing their own emotional relief, let alone winning.
Why baseball?
Baseball is a ball game with a relatively slow pace and a long game time. Compared to basketball, which is fast-paced and where one or two super stars can quickly change the situation on the court, even if a ball is successfully hit in baseball, whether or not the ball can be scored depends on the offensive and defensive status of both sides, and there are too many variables.
The essence of baseball is a sport with a high failure rate. For example, a batting average of 30% is considered an excellent hitter, but this is equivalent to seven failures in ten balls. One goal after another, one game after another, sometimes the victory or defeat is just between a few goals. This is the hope that Xiao Xiami has the opportunity to bring down the big whale. It is also like Taiwan on the border of history and empire, learning how to lose, A portrayal of waiting silently for an opportunity.
For Taiwanese, victory or defeat on the baseball field is not only an extension of the historical complex of “challenging the colonizers”, but also acts as a kind of spiritual redemption for the national sovereignty that is constantly suppressed and unrecognized. In the 1960s, people were afraid of being abandoned and forgotten. At that time, they were really not seen. Now, after the epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, Taiwan, which “stands with the world” and is also a democratic alliance, is carrying A kind of stubborn self-confidence, once you stand on the court, it is to prevent the world from pretending to be “invisible”.
To this day, there are still differences in identity within Taiwan, which have occasionally caused social and political conflicts and turmoil. But when the national team stands on the field, the line between “us” and “others”, and the phrase “I really want to win” spoken with hope, make Taiwanese society face up to the inability to hide under the political turmoil. What is expressed and recognized: It turns out that “we” is meaningful; whether it is out of habit or preference to call “China Team”, or insisting on calling out “Taiwan Team”, at this moment, we all become “we” together.
For a long time, the naturally independent generation has built a self-identity that still has a certain degree of ambiguity based on “not wanting to be like China”. Just like when a teenager is growing up, he first feels about himself through “what he doesn’t want”. independence and existence. In recent years, in the international arena, China has stepped up its suppression of Taiwan, even in competitions in its own country.Being prohibited from bringing the national flag to the venueIn this Paris Olympics, even the cheering slogans hand-painted by the spectators themselves, as long as they contained Taiwanese patterns and words, were stopped or even confiscated by the staff, and athletes must be vigilant at all times, fearing that they may face consequences if they forget to say “Taiwan”. Penalty for disqualification.
This kind of ubiquitous bullying from the military, international space to sports events has also caused many originally moderate “Republic of China factions” to put China on their “don’t want” list, defecting and becoming “natural independence”. Overseas tourists and Taiwanese viewers watching the broadcast have poured their sense of grievance at losing their own names into the only remaining Olympic anthem. In recent years, at major international competitions, live Taiwanese audiences will replace it with the lyrics of the “National Flag Song”. Chorus loudly, China has toCut off the broadcast of the award ceremony(Note 6). This song was originally regarded by the pro-independence faction as a continuation of the spirit of the humiliating and authoritarian party-state. Taiwanese girls transformed the memory of their common growth into an international symbol of resistance. In singing again and again, it completed the song that lasted for decades. The displacement from “Chinese Taipei” to “Team Taiwan”. The Taiwan home game of the 2023 Baseball Classic was the first time that fans spontaneously shouted “Team Taiwan” from the auditorium. From the initial emotion, more and more people joined in, shouting out where we come from and who we are. .
After undergoing discipline and assimilation during the Japanese colonial period, and then being endowed by the party-state authority with a mythical symbol of the Chinese nation, Taiwanese baseball has benefited from the choice of the rulers and accumulated decades of watching traditions, becoming the most familiar sports event among the people. It has also stepped away from narrow nationalism step by step, and gradually moved towards a community with the citizen contract as the core of its identity. Interestingly, Taiwan’s population that actually participates in baseball, can pitch on the field, and form teams on holidays is far lower than that of major baseball countries such as the United States and Japan. However, Taiwan’s familiarity with baseball rules, how to judge a good pitch, and how to calculate Scores, etc., are common knowledge. As long as we talk about baseball, it seems that everyone can talk about tactics and coaching arrangements.
It is precisely because of this sense of familiarity and the experience of watching games that has become part of cultural memory that the Taiwanese who cheer for the players passionately on the sidelines and in front of the TV understand the ideological differences shaped by politics and history. The things we can’t overcome are overcome by the moments of focusing on the field together. When we are together, it is no longer just the difference between our group and others, but from the accumulated actions step by step, we understand that the so-called identity is not just a difference in name and lifestyle, but also a value choice and a willingness to be with this land. People support each other, protect each other, and build lives together.
Benedict Anderson, the author of “Imagined Communities”, once mentioned that positive and healthy national construction is inseparable from two principles: first, it is the source of community emotions, in addition to belonging, there is shame Feeling guilty, that is, feeling guilty for the misdeeds of one’s own nation. Second, in contrast to religious belief, a sincere nationalist will admit the mistakes of his country and even devote himself to changing these mistakes.
The Taiwanese baseball community is indeed based on these two principles, which occurs together with political and social changes, and promotes public discussions that go far beyond sports policy and national honor. For example, after this game, the Taiwanese captain expressed his concern for his partner, She was also photographed taking care of children at the celebration banquet, which also made the division of childcare and housework, especially the situation of married women, become another hot topic. The generational changes in the coaching staff and the high level of trust between players have also made many people begin to reflect on the traditional workplace culture’s lack of trust in the younger generation.
As for the data search work of the Chinese Professional Baseball Association, not only the information is complete, but also the data and imaging team are on standby on the sidelines. After an inning, the players can immediately review and analyze the images to know what adjustments need to be made in the next round. This This new model, which speaks with data and expertise and makes real-time adjustments, not only breaks the work culture of the past bureaucratic system, but is also expected to benefit the training of players in other sports in the future. However, the team has not forgotten that the core of the work is “people”. China Professional Baseball Chairman Cai Qichang said in an exclusive interview that although sports science and intelligence research are very important, what is more important is that players can turn data into combat effectiveness. These experiences, along with the social discussions triggered by relevant reports and interviews, will have an impact on all levels of Taiwan for a long time to come.
Further solidify Taiwan’s recognition of the top 12 tournaments
It must be said that the God of history favors and even cherishes Taiwan. This top 12 tournament is like a hot-blooded drama: a team with no outstanding statistics, no star players, and not many players with international experience. Even domestic fans are not optimistic about it, and it is also criticized by the international media. The Taiwan team, rated as the last echelon, actually staged an “Underdog counterattack.” Even though they lost to the Japanese team twice in the group stage and the semi-finals, the players did not give up. In the final, they relied on near-perfect defense to complete the team. The Japanese team composed of stars won the first championship in the world’s highest level competition (Note 7). The Taiwan team adopted a strategy of facing their opponents directly instead of attacking their weaknesses. They relied on their own strength to throw balls into the strike zone and hit long hits. They also won the admiration and respect of the Japanese team after the game.
History is very humorous. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, most of Taiwan’s top players joined the newly established Chinese Professional Baseball League and were unable to represent the national team. It was regarded as the weakest national team in history, but there it was. Completed another year in Taiwan baseball history What is surprising is that it has been disappointing to the media since the preliminaries. Finally, in the Olympic semi-finals, Guo Lijianfu faced the Japanese team twice, pitched nine games, and defeated them with an astonishing record of shutting out one game and allowing two runs in one game. The Japanese team narrowly lost to Cuba in the end and won the silver medal.
In the 2013 classic Taiwan-Japan showdown, it was Hirokazu Ibata, the head coach of the Japanese team, who tied the score and finally stopped Taiwan. That year, his defeated players Wang Jianmin, Gao Zhigang, and Peng Zhengmin all The coaching staff of the Taiwan team this time paid the greatest respect to their opponents with their results.
After 32 years, Taiwan once again defeated Japan, which was composed of all-professional players, at the highest level. Taiwan’s victory was not a fluke, while maintaining a clear understanding of reality and humility, as head coach Zeng Haoju said after the game: “This is just about getting closer to them. We have to work harder to get closer to Japan or catch up with Japan.” After the failure of the 2013 Classic, Taiwan clearly realized what the problem was and began to introduce sports science training, referring to Korean vocational, The Japanese professional league has worked hard to catch up with the protection of players and international competition standards, and also knows that the current results are proof of staged achievements. Although there is still some gap with the daily life of the Japanese professional league, it is no longer an unreachable distance.
In the past, international competitions could only rely on strong hitting and strong pitching, especially the willpower of the pitchers. They always played well in two-thirds of the games. In the end, they failed because the defensive and offensive firepower could not be sustained. However, with the recent years, The intensity of competition has increased, and players’ daily skills have improved significantly. Foreign famous players have returned to Taiwan to serve as coaches after retiring, which has further transformed baseball from training to competition. Trust, communication, discussion and encouragement have replaced the past authoritarian orders from top to bottom, becoming a new generation of coaches and players. A culture created together.
In sharp contrast to the performance on the court, the other 11 teams have the big country names on the chests of their jerseys, and the Taiwan team’s jerseys have a blank space in the center. After captain Chen Jiexian hit a crucial three-point home run in the championship game, he gestured to the empty space on his chest with both hands and ran all the way back to home plate. The understanding Taiwanese audience couldn’t help but shed tears, understanding what he was saying silently. Yes, it is the name we lost, the “Taiwan” that is not allowed to be printed on the jersey. Although the Taiwanese support group shouted “Team Taiwan” to the sky in the Tokyo Dome, the players still look forward to the day when they can wear jerseys with “Taiwan” printed on them.
The self-identity that Taiwanese people have formed over the long history is difficult for outsiders to understand at once, but with sports events as a medium, people who understand and love games can understand the message that “Team Taiwan” wants to send to the world at a glance. Japan The media described Taiwan’s championship as a “world of tragic wishes”. Japanese people who love baseball can sympathize with that “wishes that must be realized no matter what, a long-cherished wish.”
And major league broadcaster JP Morosi was emotional during the awards ceremonyexpress: “Taiwanese players deeply understand the great significance of this game and what it symbolizes Taiwan’s national identity and spirit. They internalize it all, but never let the pressure of the game hinder their performance… I am grateful to be able to play in I have witnessed many wonderful moments in sports events during my career, but few moments like this have allowed me to understand a country and a nation as deeply as I have come to know Taiwan through this team and this game. “
Democratic Crisis and Identity Politics
For a long time, liberals and the Western academic left-wing camp have had a considerable degree of aversion to nationalism. This is not difficult to understand. From the painful lessons of World War II to the modern times, China and Russia have used nationalism to consolidate their domestic authority. and totalitarian rule, and then to Israel’s persecution of human rights in the name of national survival, and even gradually committed war crimes, and Eastern Europe such as Hungary and Turkey, in the name of nation, opposed pluralism, undermined judicial constitutionalism, and regressed democracy. All make it difficult to have a too positive view of nationalism.
Under this filter, it is often difficult not to be affected by prejudice. If you are not careful, you will think that actions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Ukraine, which are located on the borders of the empire and must maintain their own subjectivity through resistance, are all regarded as “Bad, unnecessary nationalism.” But for groups struggling between empires, the construction of community is a tool for trying to maintain and realize freedom.
However, the whirlwind of Brexit, Europe’s rightward shift, and Trump’s two elections also warns us that continuing to ignore and ignore the human needs behind identity politics will repeatedly expose the democratic system to populist storms, and even endanger itself. of normal operation. The reality is that pure rationality and correctness cannot drive people to do the right thing voluntarily. People will even vote for candidates who are unfavorable to them, just to be understood, or to feel comfortable that the other party speaks out, and there are even more emotional factors. Projection with collective life experiences and trauma.
In this kind of crisis, we need to explore whether there are people in this world who can respond to people’s need for a sense of belonging, provide an emotional outlet, and be willing to respect the principles of democratic constitutionalism and use human rights as the source of sovereignty and legitimacy. Identity politics, which combines the greatest common denominator among groups, is indispensable for maintaining the functioning of democracy, basic trust between different groups, and the ability to negotiate with each other.
This is why we choose this moment to talk about national construction and identity politics, especially the relationship between Taiwan and baseball. The core of the identity of Taiwan’s naturally independent generation is to break away from the traditional blue-green framework of unification and independence, and to practice citizens’ understanding of politics and politics under constitutional principles by opposing issues such as consortium monopoly, media manipulation, generational injustice, and environmental damage. Participation in and supervision of public affairs, and the rebuilding of a new community generation in the public sphere; the “resistance to China and Taiwan protection” that resists the Chinese empire’s incorporation and invasion through interests and compradors are the natural results of the above-mentioned citizen participation.
Taiwan’s process of searching for subjectivity and building a new community is almost entirely consistent with the definitions of constitutional patriotism and civic nationalism re-constructed by German scholars after World War II after learning lessons: on the one hand, it responds to the need for identity in human nature. At the same time, they use the constitutional order to restrain the legacy of identification based on culture and blood, sort out the colonial legacy in history, repair the relationship between groups, and are more willing to stand on the side of social progress and reform, and move towards economy and autonomy. direction development. For a country like Taiwan that is in a geopolitical hotspot, “Taiwan identity” also promotes active participation in the international community, whether it is increasing green energy construction in response to climate change or a desire to contribute to the global public health crisis.
In his two recent books, “Identity Politics” and “Liberalism and Dissatisfaction with It,” political scientist Francis Fukuyama has constantly reminded the power of identity politics and the need to work hard to integrate different fragmented and columnar social groups. Prevent the democratic system from collapsing. However, precisely because this new type of nationalist cohesion does not rely on “innateness” and often requires difficult exploration and inspection, even old countries with a profound democratic culture have to face various challenges. It is difficult to expect the vast majority of citizens to use reason to overcome emotions, fears, nostalgia for the past, and current dissatisfaction every time. The same is true in Taiwan, where citizens who care about society are often exhausted.
Therefore, can we find a kind of spiritual strength that different groups can empathize with and rely on, be willing to persuade and negotiate with each other with the goal of building a life together, and even be willing to work together when difficulties come, to unite those people who are bright and happy? Ambiguities that cannot be overcome by reason may become the key to whether citizen nationalism can be successfully maintained and democracy can continue to repair itself.
It seems likely that Taiwanese people’s relationship with baseball and sporting events will become, or even already plays, this key role. As Xie Dawen said in this articleColumnLi mentioned that sports events allow us to remember our favorite looks and the “Taiwan story” we all recognize. This Taiwan story is of course an idealized version, but this is also the point. Its function is not to restore the event itself, but to remind us of what we have accomplished together and to believe in us when we are caught up in disputes, confusions and challenges. It can be done again.
Of course, it is difficult to replicate the experience of any country, and the crisis of democracy cannot be solved by every country cultivating a hobby of national sports. Taiwan seems to be doing well at the moment, but there is no guarantee that if there are more unexpected consequences Even in times of external crises or changes in the world situation, we can still retain some of the accumulated results. Perhaps this is a tug-of-war that must always be stepped on between tensions, but at least we can break the inertia of past thinking and start to seek and imagine new possibilities without underestimating or overindulging human instincts.
(Thanks to Mr. Xu Zhengxian, Chairman of the Taiwan Sports Industry Association, for providing information and assistance during the writing process. The author is solely responsible for the article)
Note 1: Before the game, many Taiwanese fans were not optimistic about this event. They even felt that the lineup was not high-quality enough, that there were problems with the selection and coaching staff, etc. Therefore, they expressed their wish to apologize to the national team item by item.
Note 2: Please refer to the book “One Hundred Years of Baseball in Taiwan”.
Note 3: Since 1954, the “two Chinas” have been tug-of-war over Olympic qualifications, and each even withdrew from the Olympics in protest. In 1959, the International Olympic Committee terminated its membership in the “China Olympic Games” and suggested that Taiwan rejoin the association under the name of Taiwan or Formosa, but was rejected by the Kuomintang government. In the opening ceremonies of three consecutive Olympic Games in 1960, 1964, and 1968, Taiwanese teams held banners with the slogan “UNDER PROTEST” and walked behind the “FORMOSA” nameplate, insisting on returning to the “Republic of China”. In 1968, this was achieved Target.
However, after the People’s Republic of China entered the United Nations in 1971, the “Republic of China” became powerless internationally, and Taiwan, which rejected the name “Chinese Taipei,” also lost its qualification to participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. In the end, in view of the severe compression of Taiwan’s participation space between 1970 and 1980, government representatives accepted the Lausanne Agreement. From then on, Taiwan must participate in any international competition under Olympic regulations under the name “Chinese Taipei”.
Note 4: Taiwan’s “Apple Daily” has ceased publication on May 18, 2021. At that time, it was the traditional print media that paid the most attention to sports events and Taiwanese athletes after the Minsheng Daily.
Note 5: Due to the Olympic Games regulations, athletes from all countries must register through individual associations to avoid political interference. However, Taiwan’s associations have long been reduced to political favors, laymen and experts, and even made mistakes in booking air tickets and transporting equipment for athletes. However, The contestants received the competition prize money but also demanded dividends. Therefore, they were criticized by netizens as “turning a unique public character into an exclusive business” and jokingly called “body evil”.
Note 6: The melody of Chinese Taipei’s Olympic anthem is the same as the “Flag Song”. People in Taiwan over the age of 30 have experienced the flag-raising ceremony since elementary school. Although the lyrics still praise the mountains and rivers of the Republic of China and the Xinhai Uprising and other deeds, they have It has become the muscle memory of most people, and they can sing this song with their eyes closed.
Note 7: The current highest-level baseball events are the World Baseball Series (WBSC Premier 12), which was organized by the International Baseball and Softball Association in 2015, and the World Baseball Classic (World Baseball Classic), which was jointly organized by the WBSC and Major League Baseball. Baseball Classic, WBC), and Olympic baseball games. Among them, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is regarded as the top event because it allows major league players to participate. However, each country will send its top professional baseball players outside the major leagues to participate in the three events. The level of Japanese professional baseball is not inferior to that of the American 3A teams, so it is still the same level of competition.
