A “Kid’s Game”?

The author examines the role of little league baseball in the construction of a Taiwanese national identity. Taiwan has typically dominated international youth baseball, winning 18 Little League Baseball World Series championships before permanently pulling out of the competition in 1996. The author traces the history of Taiwan’s involvement with the sport, arguing that little league baseball, initially promoted to support a “nationalist” Taiwanese identity based on reunification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), ironically reinforced a new Taiwanese identity based on distinction from and incompatibility with the PRC. The author suggests that in turn, this emerging identity, coupled with the introduction of professional baseball, has helped diminish the status of the sport in Taiwan.