Playing in Isolation: A History of Baseball in Taiwan

by Junwei Yu

Despite the political instability characterizing twentieth-century Taiwan, the value of baseball in the lives of Taiwanese has been a constant since the game was introduced in 1895. The game first gained popularity on the island under the Japanese occupation, and that popularity continued after World War II despite the withdrawal of the Japanese and an official lack of support from the new state power, the Chinese Nationalist Party. The remarkable success of Taiwanese Little League teams in the 1970s and 1980s cemented Taiwan’s relationship with the game.

 

Taiwanese native Junwei Yu’s Playing in Isolation presents a comprehensive account of that relationship. While giving due credit to the great successes in Taiwanese baseball, Yu also addresses the scandals and controversies that have plagued the sport, including game fixing, improper recruitment practices, and the age-deception fiasco that tainted Taiwan’s seventeen Little League World Series wins. In addition Yu draws attention to the influence traditional culture exerts on parental support of sports versus education and more sedentary occupations.

 

Drawing on detailed research and personal experience, Yu provides a rare, honest look at the reality of baseball in Taiwan and offers an insider’s perspective on a unique part of baseball history.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2007

Reviews

[Jonathan Dunkle]

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and shut down a lot of the world, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), based in Taiwan, was the only league that played in the early spring of 2020. I watched and was hooked and still follow the league today.

I was familiar with the gambling scandals that hit the CPBL and the relatively short-lived competition with the rival Taiwan Major League but outside of that, had little knowledge of the league itself. I thought that this book, based on Yu's doctoral dissertation, would be helpful in that regard.

It turns out that it didn't provide me with much more on the professional game because professional baseball in Taiwan is still very much in its infancy. What this book does provide is background on baseball as a sport, the role of Confucianism in restricting the sport's development, the extrinsic behaviors that drove the growth and demise of youth baseball in the seventies and eighties when Taiwan dominated in international competition, and finally, the scandals that have flourished (it makes the Steroids Era and the Black Sox seem almost tame).

Yu has worked as a translator for baseball leagues and teams and is very much a fan and brings his experiences and prejudices to the book which makes it very readable despite its academic origins. Yu also comments in the end that it was his disappointment in the negative events that plagued Taiwanese baseball that led him to write the book and in that light, the book seemed as if it might have been a cathartic venture for him.

I enjoyed it very much. My biggest disappointment was that the book was published in 2007 and I would love to know more about how baseball has developed in Taiwan since that time.

[Jerry Chen]

Good outline of Taiwanese baseball history and an interesting thesis of its modern decline. Important book to build upon, but lacks depth in many assertions.