Taiwan’s baseball team took an unexpected loss against China at the Olympics on Friday. The Taiwanese members of the audience were extremely upset and in very low spirits and could not understand how Taiwan could lose to China. Coupled with Taiwan’s loss against Japan the day before, it seems that everybody has now lost confidence in Taiwanese baseball.
Baseball is our national sport. If we lose at other sports, we may feel upset, but we are not as heartbroken as when we lose at baseball. When that happens, it is as if we lose confidence in Taiwan as a nation, and we feel that we are a very small, second-class country.
It is our lack of confidence in Taiwan as a nation that has made our Olympic athletes perform worse than they should have.
Last Thursday the baseball team lost to Japan in the ninth inning, and then lost in the eighth to China on Friday. Taiwan also performed poorly in archery and women’s tennis. These defeats show that we are behind other countries in terms of confidence, not skill. A lack of belief in themselves is what is causing Taiwan’s athletes to take severe thrashings at the Olympics.
In the first eight innings of the match against Japan, especially the first five, our athletes performed very well. However, at the end of the fifth inning, the coach surprisingly replaced Hsu Wen-hsiung (�?�), who was playing very well. The game then took a turn for the worse.
Many people could not understand the coach’s decision. Some said he wanted to spare Hsu for later matches against stronger teams. If this is true, it proves that our national baseball coach thinks beating Japan is not very important for us. He was probably aiming for a place in the top four, and thought that losing to Japan was not a big deal because they are a very strong team.
This is the crux of the matter, as it shows that deep in their hearts, our team never even thought about beating Japan. With a mindset like that, defeat is inevitable.
When we look at South Korea, we see a determination to come first in every event. The South Koreans have already won first place in many competitions, even turning things around in the ninth inning against the US baseball team. China has also pledged to break many world records, and its athletes have indeed done so. Such achievements not only require skill, but also, and more importantly, self-confidence.
Confidence and resolve are different. In the last inning against Japan, our players were already so far behind that they just wanted to end the game. Some said this was because they were facing a match against China the next morning, so they did not want to waste energy on a losing match. This shows that Taiwan’s team had the resolve to defeat China, but not the confidence.
Without the added support that confidence gives, determination becomes an empty mental power. This is the real reason why Taiwanese athletes do not have much staying power.
Nationalistic pride has been increasing in South Korea and China, both of which believe they are the best country in the world. Such national pride and self-confidence allows athletes to shine in Olympic matches.
Unfortunately, the people of Taiwan have always had an unclear view of who we are as a nation and a people, and everyone here is uncertain and even pessimistic about Taiwan’s future. Nobody in Taiwan would dare proclaim that we are the best in the world. Without calm, determination and confidence that comes from within, we cannot understand why our athletes are unable to give their best when representing our nation at major sporting events.
Lii Ding-tzann is a professor of sociology at National Tsing Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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