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After the Americans introduced baseball to Japan in the late 19th century, Japan took the game John Ross might call "a corruption of cricket" to their new colonial possession, where it became a hit. Surviving -- somewhat surprisingly -- the arrival of the Nationalists in 1949, baseball was officially ignored for the most part, which helped usher in a "Golden Age'' for the game and its rise to the status of "national game." But harnessed for political and material gain, baseball would be tarnished by a series of scandals that left fans unhappy and out of the stands. In the 2020s, however, there are signs of a revival... Could the "Guo Qiu" be making a comeback?
Cover image: Three players from the famous KANO team - Via Wikimedia Commons
Click HERE to read more about the Japanese-era Kano team
2022 news from the Taipei Times: Kaohsiung to get new pro baseball team
Below: Players react as the Chinese Taipei team snatches silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. (Image via The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association/ Filming and Editing by 76:101-of-taiwans-baseball&catid=158:archives-and-databases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Archive Group, Department of Information and library science, Tamkang University)
Below: Chinese Taipei players wave to crowds after winning bronze at the exhibition games in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. (Provided by udndata.com/ Digital collection ID: P0000380/ Date: 1984-08-08)
Former AIT chief Steven Young on Taiwan baseball and hopes for a revival
Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became was famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
