Last time, I mentioned that the Takasago Volunteer Corps was highly skilled in combat, but these indigenous people are equally talented in sports.
Indigenous people make up about 2% of Taiwan’s population, totaling approximately 400,000. The largest group is the Amis people, numbering about 140,000.
Have you heard of the Taiwanese film “KANO 1931: Beyond the Sea to Koshien,” which was released a few years ago? Last month, it was broadcast on TV as a late-night movie in two parts.
The film depicts the journey of the baseball team from Chiayi Agricultural and Forestry School (KANO) in central Taiwan as they won their way through the island-wide qualifiers and went on to finish as runners-up at Koshien. The team’s starting lineup consisted of three Japanese players, two Han Chinese, and the remaining four were indigenous people—referred to as “Bannin (Aboringines)”—including three from the Amis tribe. Since then, Chiayi Agricultural and Forestry School has appeared at Koshien a total of five times, including both spring and summer tournaments.
From before the war through the postwar era and up to the present day, many Taiwanese players have excelled in Japanese professional baseball. Some Taiwanese players have even been inducted into Japan’s “Meikyukai” (Hall of Fame). Among these Taiwanese players, there are many who are of Amis descent. I believe that the foundation for their success lies in the fact that baseball had already taken deep root as a sport in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period.
Taiwan’s national team first competed in the 9th tournament in 1923. At that time, it was called the “National Secondary School Baseball Championship.” In fact, even earlier, starting with the 7th tournament, representative teams that had won their way through in Manchuria and Korea had already participated. In terms of results, the Manchurian representative, Dalian Commercial High School, finished as runner-up, while the Korean representatives—Busan Commercial High School, Huiwen High School, Keijo Middle School, and Keijo Commercial High School—each advanced to the quarterfinals. Both the Manchuria and Korea teams were largely composed of mixed groups of Japanese, Han Chinese, and Koreans, but Huifen High School was the only team made up entirely of Koreans. “Keijo” refers to present-day Seoul.
Against this backdrop, professional baseball later emerged in both South Korea and Taiwan as a familiar sport. However, because baseball was suppressed in China, it has yet to become a major sport there.
At the beginning of this Taiwan blog, I mentioned the removal of overhead power lines in Taipei City, but Taiwan’s development in recent years has been truly remarkable.
I believe it is precisely because Taiwan is a place where people from diverse backgrounds live together amidst the chaotic flow of history that a spirit of acknowledging and respecting one another’s differences has emerged. I feel that the Taiwanese national character—or rather, their vitality and cheerfulness—forms the foundation of this development.
It has been 35 years since I traveled around Taiwan in 1983. Since then, expressways and high-speed rail have been developed, and in 2004, “Taipei 101”—at 501 meters tall, the world’s tallest skyscraper at the time—was constructed. Amidst all this, what I find particularly enviable is the “direct democracy” that has begun to take root in Taiwan.
Last November 2018, Taiwan held its unified local elections. As a result, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen suffered a crushing defeat. While the cause is said to be that the public did not want sudden reforms, some also suggest that “we have entered an era where party affiliation alone is no longer sufficient to determine national elections.” In other words, a trend is emerging in Taiwan today where elections can no longer be discussed solely in terms of “local Taiwanese” versus “mainlanders.”
Concurrent with this election, Taiwan held its first-ever referendum on ten proposed measures. These ten referendum items were proposed by the Taiwanese people themselves and covered issues such as same-sex marriage, energy policy, and the naming of Taiwan. While some of these may raise the question, “Is this really something the public should be proposing?”—leaving that as a challenge for the future—I personally find it enviable that they were able to propose them in the first place.
The model Taiwan drew upon was the Swiss system of direct democracy, which I previously introduced in this blog.
In the 2000s, Taiwanese officials frequently visited Switzerland to gather information and draw inspiration from various aspects of the system. Although the required percentage of signatures relative to the population was lower than originally planned, the referendum was held for the first time in conjunction with this general election.
Regardless of the outcome, Taiwan has now earned recognition from other countries as a nation that practices a more citizen-oriented electoral system within Asia.
前回、高砂義勇隊は戦闘能力が秀でていると記しましたが、彼ら原住民はスポーツセンスも同様に優れています。
台湾の人口の約２％にあたる40万人ほどの人が原住民です。中でも一番多いのが約14万人のアミ族です。
数年前に公開された台湾映画「KANO 1931 海の向こうの甲子園」をご存じですか。先月、前後編２回にわたり、深夜映画としてテレビで放送されていました。
台湾中部の嘉義農林学校(KANO)の野球部が台湾全土の予選を勝ち上がり、甲子園で準優勝するまでを描いた映画です。そのチームのレギュラーは日本人３名、漢人２名、そして残る４名は蕃人と呼ばれる原住民、うちアミ族３名というチーム構成でした。その後も嘉義農林学校は甲子園に春夏合わせて５回出場しています。
戦前から戦後、そして現在にいたるまで多くの台湾人選手が日本のプロ野球で活躍しています。日本の「名球会」入りしている台湾人選手もいます。それら台湾人選手の中にはアミ族出身の選手が多くいます。私は彼らの活躍の裏には日本統治期から台湾で野球がスポーツとしてしっかりと根づいていた素地があったからだと思っています。
台湾の代表チームが出場したのは1923年の第９回大会からです。当時は「全国中等学校優勝野球大会」と呼ばれていました。実はそれよりも早く第７回大会から満州と朝鮮で勝ち上がった代表チームが出場しています。戦歴は満州代表の大連商業が準優勝、朝鮮代表の釜山商業、徽文高普、京城中学、京城商業がそれぞれ準々決勝まで勝ち上がっています。満州代表、朝鮮代表ともにチーム編成の多くは日本人と漢人や朝鮮人の混成チームでしたが、徽文高普だけは全員が朝鮮人で編成されていました。京城とは今のソウルのことです。
このような背景があり、お馴染みのスポーツとして韓国と台湾では後にプロ野球ができました。しかし中国では野球を排除したこともあり、未だにメジャーなスポーツになっていません。
この台湾のブログの最初で台北市内の無電柱化の話をしましたが、近年の台湾の発展ぶりは目を見張るものがあります。
混沌とした時代の流れの中で様々な背景の人たちが一緒に暮らす台湾だからこそ、お互いがその差異を認め、尊重する気運が生まれていったように思います。台湾人の国民性というか、バイタリティや明るさがその発展のベースにあるような気がします。
私が台湾一周をしたのは35年も前です。その後、高速道路や高速鉄道も整い、2004年には高さ501ｍと当時の世界一の超高層ビル「台北101」も建設されています。そんな中で私が羨ましくも思っているのが台湾で実践し始められた「直接民主主義」です。
前年の11月、台湾で統一地方選が行われました。結果、蔡英文総統が率いる民進党政権が惨敗しました。その原因は国民が急な改革を望まなかったということですが、一部に「党派だけでは国政選挙を判断できない時代になった」ともいわれています。つまり、今の台湾には本省人、外省人だけでは選挙を語れない動きが生まれつつあるということでしょう。
この選挙と同時に10項目の賛否を問う国民投票が始めて台湾で行われました。この国民投票の10項目こそが台湾国民自らが提起したもので同性婚、エネルギー、台湾の呼称問題などです。その中には「これは国民が提起するものか」と思えるものもありますが、それは今後の課題として、私には提起できること自体が羨ましく思えるのです。
台湾が参考にしたのが、以前このブログで紹介したスイスの直接民主主義でした。
2000年代に入ると台湾の担当者は、諸々を参考にすべく度々スイスを訪れては情報収集を行っていたのです。当初の予定より問題提起の対人口比率のパーセンテージが下がったものの今回総選挙と合わせて初めて実施されました。結果はともあれ、諸外国から台湾はアジアの中でより国民寄りの選挙形態を実践している国との評価を受けるまでになったのです。
My Life with Bicycles 