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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: February 10, 2020 at 2:44:40 PM EST > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Asia]: Dunscomb on Harney, 'Empire of Infields: > Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural Identity, 1895-1968' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > John J. Harney. Empire of Infields: Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural > Identity, 1895-1968. Lincoln Univeristy of Nebraska Press, 2019. > 240 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8032-8682-5. > > Reviewed by Paul Dunscomb (University of Alaska Anchorage) > Published on H-Asia (February, 2020) > Commissioned by Bradley C. Davis > > What makes sports better than fiction is the quality of the stories. > On the field, the court, the track, powerful narratives are > constructed and played out, and even if the result is a loss or a tie > the test of character can produce a satisfying result. Part of the > appeal of sports stories is that on fields with established ground > rules under universally applied regulations, they offer the > opportunity to turn the tables. Asymmetries of power can be > transcended and the oppressed can assert themselves against their > oppressors. > > Sport also involves more than just the players, of course. Local > teams enlist their fans in tribal fellowship, while in international > competition athletes can become national avatars. So, India can > defeat Britain on the cricket pitch, and Czechoslovakia's Martina > Navratilova can crush her Soviet opponent on the tennis court while > the Soviets crush the "Prague spring" in 1968 ("you'd need a tank to > beat me!" she said as they met at the net). And even if the contest > may seem to pit unequal parties, the possibility of the upset always > remains, and even in defeat, striving for a seemingly impossible goal > brings its own dignity ("Why go to the moon?" John F. Kennedy asked, > "Why does Rice play Texas?"). > > We love sports movies for much the same reason. Yet as John J. > Harney, professor of history at Centre College, Kentucky, notes in > the introduction of _Empire of Infields: Baseball and National > Identity in Taiwan, 1895-1968_, the popular 2014 Taiwanese film > _Kanō_, which describes the 1931 appearance of the team from the > Jiayi Agricultural and Forestry Institute (Kanō in Japanese > pronunciation), was beloved not because the plucky team portrayed won > the 1931 Japanese high school baseball tournament (they lost the > championship game) but because the team, a collection of indigenous, > Chinese, and Japanese students, is recalled as a Taiwanese team, > therefore positing a Taiwanese identity that is increasingly sought > after by present-day residents of that island. > > This is the key to Harney's project, to unpack the significance of > baseball as the "national sport" of a land that is denied national > identity. Baseball came to Taiwan with the colonizing Japanese after > it was incorporated into the empire in 1895. It remained after the > Japanese were expelled and replaced by new "outside" overlords in the > form of the defeated mainland remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's > Nationalist Party (KMT). It survived more in spite of than because of > the KMT's pretense to be the government of the Chinese mainland. It > gained acceptance as an assertion of nationhood at a time when that > proposition was coming increasingly under siege. So, Taiwan's > relation to baseball, past and present, is a far more fraught one > than the usual subaltern study of appropriation and mastery. While > many on Taiwan love the game, what the game gives them, both at the > time and retrospectively, is subject to constant renegotiation. > > Harney notes that baseball entered Taiwan not on the heels of Japan's > imperial army but through the enthusiasm of white-collar office > workers and educators in schools for the Japanese. This is what the > Japanese today call _shakai yakyū_ or "social baseball." This takes > the form not of extended league play resulting in a post-season > championship but of periodic tournaments between amateur (or at most > semiprofessional) players. This initial injection of baseball into > the island was strictly for Japanese consumption. It did not have the > opportunity to spread beyond this enclave until the 1922 decision to > integrate the education system around a Japanese mandated curriculum. > > Even as this was happening Taiwan was made a solid portion of Japan's > infield empire when it became part of the regular circuit for > barnstorming teams from the metropole (notably, Waseda University's > famous team) and occasionally from beyond as well. Strengthening of > ties between metropole and colony boosted the quality of local play > and provided high school students with an aspirational goal, Koshien > Stadium, home of the national high school baseball tournament every > August. > > Even before Kanō's famous foray, the first indicators of baseball as > a marker of the success of Japan's "civilizing" colonial mission and > the success of the new assimilationist policy came in the form of the > indigenous students of the Hualian Agricultural School (Nokō). Their > "savage" play impressed the Chinese and Japanese in the larger cities > of the south with their mastery of the game. Indeed, the presence of > indigenous players would become one of the hallmarks of Taiwanese > baseball. > > The withdrawal of the Japanese from Taiwan in 1945 left behind any > number of colonial legacies, not least baseball. The new KMT > government, proponents of an ideology of new Chinese culture > (including sport), from which the Taiwanese had been excluded, looked > askance at these colonial bequests and were equally hostile to any > expressions of Taiwanese identity. They much preferred basketball or > tennis as the appropriate sports of the new Chinese, but they quickly > realized baseball's utility as the preferred sport of its chief > patron, the United States, as well as its allies, such as the > Philippines, but also South Korea and Japan. So, while baseball was > not necessarily encouraged by the new regime, it was not actively > discouraged by it either. > > Even so, baseball maintained its Japanese orientation during the > 1960s, driven largely by the success of Taiwanese players in Japanese > professional ranks. Oh Sadaharu, Japan's "Babe Ruth," was born on > Taiwan and his exploits with the Yomiuri Giants were followed with > intense interest and pride. His visits "home" allowed him to revel in > his celebrity, and his ambiguous citizenship (not Japanese but not > Chinese either) mirrored the curious position of the Republic of > China (ROC). > > Harney concludes his coverage in 1968, when the Hongye Primary School > baseball team defeated a visiting team from Wakayama, home of the > then Little League World Series champions. While the Wakayama team > was not the same championship team, Hongye's victory allowed > Taiwanese baseball to transcend its Japanese origins and convinced > the KMT government that youth baseball provided a means to promote > international visibility for a nation increasingly driven from the > global stage. > > Taiwanese domination of the Little League World Series, starting in > 1971 and running through that decade, marks a shift in the > aspirational goal of the national sport from Koshien Stadium in Japan > to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Yet Harney notes that while this gave > the KMT the exposure it craved, it also provided opportunities for > cheering fans of the winning teams to assert a Taiwanese, rather than > an ROC, identity. The orientation of Taiwanese baseball may have > changed, but its character remained just as fraught and multivalent > as it ever had been. > > Overall, Harney does a fine job explicating the various phases of > baseball's evolution on Taiwan primarily by a thorough scouring of > local newspaper coverage of the sport over the decades. His chapter > on the rise of intra-imperial barnstorming teams seems overdone, > however, and steals our attention from Taiwan at a critical stage. > And while his decision to end the story of Taiwanese baseball in 1968 > makes sense, there is room to wonder precisely how much it managed to > leave behind its Japanese origins. > > Like its Japanese antecedent, baseball in Taiwan was born amateur, > embedded in schools and the shakai yakyū world of youth and > corporate baseball tournaments. It did not become a professional > sport until after the period covered by Harney. Yet it would be > interesting to know whether Taiwanese pro ball developed its own > distinct model or borrowed the vertical model of parent company and > franchise, which is the mainstay of pro ball in Japan (and South > Korea). > > Harney's _Empire of Infields_ joins Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu's > _Trans-Pacific Field of Dreams: How Baseball Linked the United States > and Japan in Peace and War _(2012) as an important work describing > the evolution of baseball as an international sport. And while > soccer, golf, basketball, or tennis may have a more truly global > reach, he demonstrates well how baseball came to establish its secure > niche in the world. > > Citation: Paul Dunscomb. Review of Harney, John J., _Empire of > Infields: Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural Identity, 1895-1968_. > H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. February, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54524 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com