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Q: Why is Japan and Taiwan crazy about baseball but not China?
Pretty strange yes?
I would guess that it's because Japan had USA military occupation post WWII and Taiwan has had a huge USA influence since the Communists took over in the mainland, and it's this influence that has lead to the popularity of Baseball.
That and during the days when China was REALLY communist, baseball was probably about as politically correct as students in Tienanmen!
I would guess that it's because Japan had USA military occupation post WWII and Taiwan has had a huge USA influence since the Communists took over in the mainland, and it's this influence that has lead to the popularity of Baseball.
That and during the days when China was REALLY communist, baseball was probably about as politically correct as students in Tienanmen!
S. Korea too. But yea, its largely a military deployment thing, in much the same way that Rugby and Cricket are a big deal in the commonwealth countries. But it isn't all about military bases. We have bases in Germany, Italy, and Great Britain for as long as we've been in Japan and S. Korea yet baseball hasn't caught on at all. By the same token, the US doesn't have military bases in countries like Venezuela and Cuba, both of which are hostile to the US politically, and they're are huge baseball countries. Hell, Castro even tried out for the Yankees at one point. Also, basketball is very popular in China and that game is every bit as American as baseball.
GuilinRaf:
Guantanamo, a US Navy base is in Cuba. We call it "Gitmo".
As to Fidel Castro wanting to be a base ball player, I find it interesting to speculate about our current sports stars: which ones would have been some other noteworthy "thing" if they had not been sports stars.
mattsm84:
I'd forgotten about Gitmo. Strange, I don't actually think of it as even being part of Cuba. There is no interaction between the Cubans on the island and the military personal on the base. True that they'd been there since the Spanish American War, but still had the communists wanted to suppress the game, I imagine they would have been able to at least given it a shot. Remember Che was executing people for listening to rock and roll almost immediately after their revolution ended. The point still stands. Baseball is fairly popular in Latin America even in countries where the US does not have, and hasn't had a major military presence.
Baseball is very famous in U.S.A and it is again only U.S.A can support Japan and Taiwan Against China...so Japan and Taiwan are trying to appease U.S.A through such acts..
(I know it is not a good logic..but it is what strike first in my mind)
Baseball is far from being a universal sport, very far. It is an American icon, that is for sure, but it's not Coca Cola, chewing gum, McDonalds and all the other aspects of American culture, such as it is, that have pervaded the international scene. In the end, why should the Chinese care about baseball at all? It's very far removed from the national sports pysche.
I heard same reason basketball and soccer got popular is the reason baseball didn't.
baseball takes equipment, organization and planning,,,,,, the other two don't.
bunch a kids can grab a ball and begin playing soccer, and with just a ball & a hoop can begin playing basketball too....
GuilinRaf:
And, basketball has the advatage that you can play indoors during times of bad weather.
In Georgia, they would have burned his car to the ground.
You also need to include Korea in the equation. Its most likely because of the US infuence in this particular countries.
Widespread consumption of soy products produces higher levels of female hormones and the inability to produce muscle mass with lower hand to eye coordination. Also the general lack of interest in any sport where there is a possibility of injury or requires a degree of athleticism. Plus there is no place to play.
