The reason for baseball's society-wide popularity is explainable only in terms of the intimate relationship which has existed between the Taiwanese and baseball over the past century. Baseball was introduced into Taiwan at the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries by newly arrived Japanese administrators and company employees. At first, baseball in Taiwan was a sport played exclusively by the Japanese, for which reason it was referred to in that era by its Japanese name -- yakyu, or "fieldball." Use of name yakyu not only implied Japanification of the sport but, in Taiwan, intimated a sense of ethnic superiority on the part of the colonial rulers, inasmuch as they did not encourage their Taiwanese subjects to join the fun. In addition, cultural differences widened the gap in understanding: The Taiwanese utterly lacked appreciation of a sport where someone brandished a stick and people crowded round to watch a ball, much less did they have any inclination to "play ball" themselves.

During the 1920s, the special appeal and competitive spirit of yakyu, along with the Taiwan people's sport consciousness, became increasingly widespread, and baseball broke free of its cultural-gap and Japanese-chauvinist symbolism, becoming a sport in which native Taiwanese toa-lang and kin-na ["adults" and "children"] alike were active. Be it in tiang-kang or e-kang , in chiang-soa or au-soa [literally: "upper harbor," "lower harbor," "front-of-mountain" and "back-of-mountain" -- the then-popular Taiwanese expressions, respectively, for northern, southern, western, and eastern Taiwan, the latter two names reflecting the fact that nearly all Taiwanese of Han-Chinese ancestry were concentrated on the western side of the island's central north-south mountain chain], the sport of baseball experienced a lively development, and, notably, "baseball exchanges" between native islanders and Japanese newcomers became popular. In1931, the Chiayi School of Agriculture and Forestry, or "Chia Nung," for short, fought its way to the apex of high school baseball competition in the Japanese Empire -- the Pan-Japanese High School Yakyu Tournament held in Koshiyen -- in which they won 2nd place, constituting one of the most glorious moments in the history of Taiwan baseball. This accomplishment of Chia Nung was symbolic of the reality that, given an "even playing field," Taiwanese victory over the Japanese was not merely a possibility but was a way of soaring above the "barbarian fence" erected by the Japanese and garnering glory for the Taiwan people. The moment when, as the curtain fell on the competition, spectators roared their approval for the sweat-drenched Taiwan players shines on even to this day as a classic scene of the oppressed defeating the colonial oppressor.

In the wake of China's postwar reassertion of sovereignty over Taiwan in 1945, the Kuomintang government's residual anti-Japanese animus was manifested in the guise of "de-Japanification" measures in the realms of culture, education and daily life -- including dumping the Japanese name kakyu in favor of the Mandarin Chinese expression pangchiu, or "batball." De-Japanification meant in effect not only a reluctance of the governmental to encourage baseball but a redrawing of the island's "baseball geography" along lines of ethnic-group distribution. For instance, in the Taipei metropolitan area, where a relatively high concentration of newly arrived mainland Chinese emigres took up residence, development of baseball was retarded in comparison with other regions. Hence, baseball in early postwar Taiwan not only became marginalized by the intrusion of politics but showed a tendency toward becoming "ethnicized," constituting a sort of borderline between peoples.

The Taiwan people's ardor for baseball was never waned, however. Over the politically and economically more stable period of the 1950s and 1960s, from banking personnel's organization of amateur baseball teams to the Taitung City's Hung Yeh (Red Leaf) Little League team's virtuoso defeat of the world champion Wakayama team from Japan, their zeal for the sport took flight along with the economy.

Come the 1970s, the Republic of China withdrew from the United Nations and broke off diplomatic relations with the United States [in reaction to U.S. recognition of the People's Republic of China and the latter's imminent admission into the U.N.]. As a consequence, the KMT government of the time launched a series of activities aimed at bolstering the people's confidence, baseball becoming one focus of this spiritual mobilization. Between 1969 and 1982, Taiwan won 13 World Little League Championships. Every year when the championship tournament rolled around, the thrilling contests made it impossible for Taiwan's people to go to sleep, staying up late intent on cheering the home team. The midnight gathering of family members in every household across the nation to witness the live-broadcast television spectacle became the amazing phenomenon of Taiwan society in the 70s. The attention given by the government to champion teams and the roars of "ROC Go! Go!" by everyone from the youngest to the oldest brought to Taiwan's "baseball fever" a smack of fervent nationalistic pride. In this way, the little league whirlwind of the 70s helped Taiwan's people get through their crisis of confidence and transcend internal ethnic divisions, and the massive injection of nationalism, which was raised to the highest plane, conferred upon baseball the effective status of "nationalball."

During the 1980s, the whirlwind of attention created in countries the world over by Taiwan's remarkable performances in all four classes of amateur baseball -- elementary-level, junior-level, senior-level, and adult leagues -- transformed the world's impression of the tiny island nation of Taiwan. In the climactic event of that decade, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics bronze medal victory won by the adult team forced the world to acknowledge Taiwan's solid clout in baseball. In particular, their virtuosity attracted the attention of Japanese professional baseball, as the result of which several of them took their talents to Japan to win further acclaim for their homeland. Although Taiwan's demise in the 1988 Seoul Olympics led some to wonder whether Taiwan's baseball power had been irrecoverably eclipsed, its silver metal victory in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics redeemed the Taiwan baseball kingdom's vaunted reputation. Baseball thus served not only to crystallize the Taiwan people's collective remembrance of their common road but to trumpet the name of Taiwan on the world stage.

In 1990, the ROC Professional Baseball League was born, extending Taiwan baseball from the amateur into the professional realm, transforming it into a "cultural industry" branch in a capitalist society, a new venue for its members' to spend their leisure time and money, too. The excitement of professional competition succeeded in attracting baseball fans to the diamonds and fanning their passion for the sport. In particular, the electrifying battles between the Brothers Elephants, the Wei Chuan Dragons and the President Lions [the latter two owned, respectively by Wei Chuan Foods Co. and President Foods Co.] succeeded in drawing standing-room-only capacity crowds. Attention-riveting action within the stadiums and cries of boxed-meal and barbecued sausage hawkers outside combined to form a baseball culture with a unique Taiwan flavor.

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