Last week, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) attended a game promoting women’s baseball, showing that the government is making strides to promote gender equality in sports. That creates a vision not seen often in many societies, in which a male president supports men’s baseball and a female vice-president promotes women’s baseball. It represents a movement toward a new era in Taiwanese baseball culture.
This moment holds major significance for women’s participation in the sport, as this era needs political leadership to develop and promote suitable national sports policies, and allocate adequate budgets to help bolster and hone a competitive and sustainable baseball and sporting culture.
Two reasons for this are as follows:
Taiwan women’s baseball is No. 2 in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) — second only to Japan.
The International Olympics Committee now emphasizes the importance of gender equality in sports, and with baseball making a return to the Olympics at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the government should create a sustainable plan and do the needed legwork to strengthen Taiwan Women’s Baseball before that time.
This year’s Paris Olympics saw a stronger emphasis on gender equality in sports and the trend is toward equal participation in competitions by male and female athletes.
Women’s baseball is to feature at the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games, to be held in the US and Australia respectively, two nations recognized as having strong gender equality in sports.
Add to this that the WBSC promotes women’s baseball on more than three continents, and it is clear that this important and Olympic medal-conferring sport needs government and public attention.
However, Taiwan needs a plan to amply fund and sustain women’s sports.
Starting from the elementary-school level, the nation should create more baseball training and competition opportunities for girls and women.
The nation’s development of baseball has long been centered on male athletes, with women only playing the role of spectators.
In 1996, when the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association noticed a steady drop in interest in baseball, and the vast majority of schools were banning baseball, it set up a “Le-Le Tee-ball League” (樂樂棒球) for children to play the sport.
However, at the time, only male players were seen as the foundation for the future of baseball in Taiwan, while girls were encouraged to just be fans or become softball players.
Twenty years later, thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Taiwan Women’s Baseball Promotion Association, as well as fans including Hsiao, their work has provided a platform for girls and women to hone their skills as far as they want to and allowed them to play ball just as boys and men do, helping them achieve personnel advancement and shattering the glass ceiling of “tradition.”
Women’s baseball is reaching new heights. If the government and society actively implement the UN Sustainable Development goal of gender equality, helping girls and women progress from simply being a spectator to actively hitting and throwing out on the diamond and competing, it would be hugely valuable in helping Taiwanese society advance and would also raise the nation’s visibility in the international community.
Charles Yu is a professor and the head of National Chung Hsing University’s Graduate Institute of Sports Health and Management.
Translated by Tim Smith
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
RSS