Sports -- generating interest in Asia

[clay dube]

I was stunned when we visited an elite private high school in Kyoto and heard from the principal that among the school's greatest achievements was success in sports, especially in American football. Given the focus on academics, this came as a surprise though I'd been impressed during earlier visits to Japanese high schools by the fervor for sports, arts, and various hobbies. A friend recently explained that since the high school was affiliated with Ritsumeikan University it was natural that it would emphasize American football. It turns out that Ritsumeikan is a Japanese university American football powerhouse. It's chief rivals are Kyoto University and Kwansei Gakuin University.

In baseball, Waseda University and Keio University are terrific rivals. It might be interesting for students to explore this. Waseda, incidentally, renewed its baseball rivalry with the University of Chicago.

[clay dube]

Thanks, Matthew, for getting this discussion of East Asian players in world football (soccer) launched. Here's a link to a 2005 Time magazine article about Park:

http://www.time.com/time/asia/2005/heroes/park_ji_sung.html

Here's a more recent article (May 2008) from Times Online:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3977048.ece

Park is quoted as saying:
“I proved my ability with PSV but some people still think Asian players aren’t good enough to play in Europe.... It's always challenging to prove them wrong. When I first came to United I had to prove my ability. Now everyone knows I’m not just here to sell shirts!" [meaning he wasn't signed by United just to boost shirt sales among Koreans]

[Anonymous]

Dong Fangzhuo, who plays for Barclay's Premiership team Manchester United scored China's first ever Olympic goal in football (soccer). This no doubt was a proud moment for Dong; maybe this season for Manchester United Dong can muster this same magic on the pitch (field). Here's the article http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/wires/08/07/2080.ap.as.oly.soc.china.new.zealand/

Thanks Clay on the articles for Park.

[Anonymous]

93% of my students are Latino. For many of my male students in particular, soccer and boxing seem to be pretty popular.

Hidetoshi Nakata is one player that might interest students. He started his soccer career at the age of 18, and represented his home country of Japan in the 1996 olympics where the Japanese team upset Brazil!! Also, he eventually became a player for Europe. He played seven seasons for Italy and won several awards while playing for Italy. There are lots of images that can be found of him because he also became a fashion and commercial model in Europe, as well as Japan.

Another athlete that comes to mind is Manny Pacquiao, also known as "the pac-man". Manny is of Filipino descent. He is currently the WBC Lightweight Champion and the WBC Super Featherweight Champion, and was the former world champion at IBF Super Bantamweight, and WBC Flyweight divisions. He is the first Filipino and Asian boxer to win three then later four world titles in different weight divisions. He took over as the Ring Magazine pound for pound number 1 ranked boxer in the world on June 9, 2008 after Floyd Mayweather, Jr. announced his retirement from boxing.

These are some amazing athletes that if given the proper introduction, would really excite students!!

[Anonymous]

Today, the sport of mixed martial arts or "MMA" is getting more and more popular. Just 10 years, the "Ulimate Fighting Championship" was seen as barbaric and violent. Although today some still see it as such, it has become more mainstreamed as you will see it on DVD's, sports bars, and even on MTV. In fact MTV has had multiple seasons of reality shows in which men train and compete for a chance to fight in the Ultimate Fighting's main arena known as the "Octagon".

In Japan, the UFC's equivalent is PRIDE fighting. Although recently bought out by UFC, PRIDE was a huge deal because of its more international pool of fighters. One of the best fighters to come out of PRIDE was Japan's KAZUSHI SAKURABA. You can teach an entire lesson on Judo and Japanese submissions as a way of introducing students to Japanese martial arts culture. Sakuraba was one of the few fighters to beat Quentin Rampage Jackson, the man who is the UFC's current light heavy weight champion!!

[Anonymous]

The Japanese Olympic swim team, the 4 man relay race was leading the pack after the first two swimmers, but finished third overall behind the United States and Australia.

One of the swimmers is Kitajima Kosuke, who is a four time GOLD MEDALIST in the 100 and 200 meter breast stroke!

All we hear about is Phelps, because we are in America....when I lived in japan in 2004, Kosuke was the superstar. Not everyone can win 7 gold medals like Phelps, but i mean TWO gold medals in one olympic year sounds like a pretty big thing to me. He is yet another athelete that kids could learn more about!!

[Anonymous]

To those who feel that sports have come a long way in other parts of the world. We must look at how this has or has not been influenced by the government.
Let's look at Baseball: Takashi Saito (japan)
Basketball: Yao Ming (china)
Track & Field :Liu Xiang (china)
Golf Shi Hyun Ahn (korea)
Etc.: you name it...
These athletes have their own stories to tell. Look at the latest from Yao and Liu from China. They share some interesting details about their country.

[clay dube]

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing certainly attracted the interest of students. I think we should seize upon this to discuss what the 1964 Tokyo games and the 1988 Seoul games meant for those countries.

Here's a good article on the importance of the 1964 games for Japan. It's part of a Japan Society collection of resources. It was written by Paul Droubie of Manhattan College.

http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/japans_rebirth_at_the_1964_tokyo_summer

[clay dube]

Visiting night markets in Taipei, one is struck by the number of US major league baseball jerseys for sale.

Over the past decade a number of players from Taiwan have made it to the "big leagues." The first was CHEN Chin-feng 陳 金鋒, an outfielder who played for the Dodgers starting in 2002. Chen is an aborigine, a member of the Siraya group. Another player from Taiwan to join the Dodgers was KUO Hong-chih 郭泓志. Kuo played well enough in 2010 to make it to the all-star game. By far the most successful player from Taiwan thus far, however, is WANG Chien-min 王建民. Wang now pitches for the Washington Nationals, but he anchored the New York Yankees rotation in 2006 and 2007, winning 19 games each season.

You may soon be reading about LIN Tzu-wei 林子偉. Last month Lin signed with the Boston Red Sox for over $2 million. Lin’s 18 and just graduated from high school. The New York Yankees wanted the young shortstop two years ago and offered $350,000. Taiwan’s baseball association blocked the deal, threatening to ban Lin from ever playing or coaching in Taiwan if he signed before graduating from high school.

Much has been written about Japanese baseball (You Gotta Have Wa is a great book) and there’s even a feature film on it (Mr. Baseball, featuring Tom Selleck as the “fish out of water” American playing in Japan). Unfortunately, there’s not much written about the history of baseball in Taiwan.

There are many errors, for example, in the announcer’s opening comments at the 2009 Little League World Series (see YouTube video below). Some are mistakes about Taiwan’s history, but for us here the key one is how baseball came to the island. It was brought to Taiwan by Japanese during the long period (1895-1945) when Taiwan was a Japanese colony (the announcer mistakenly has baseball arriving in Japan after 1945 and then being transmitted to China and finally Taiwan) .

Taiwan, as many teachers know, has enjoyed great success in Little League. Teams from Taiwan has won 17 Little League Championships and a team from Gueishan Elementary School in Taoyuan County has just qualified for the August 2012 World Series in Williamsport, PA.

Taiwan’s government has a useful “100 years of baseball in Taiwan” timeline at: http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/lp.asp?ctNode=1784&CtUnit=516&BaseDSD=7&mp=14. One finds that schools, government departments, and businesses all sponsored teams. At one point during World War II, the top hitter in Japan’s major leagues was WUChang-cheng (1942).

The point of all this is to illustrate how student interest in sports could be exploited to engage them in discussions of Asia, of the intertwining of cultures, and of the business of sports.

For example, what rituals do American players observe before starting a game? You and your students may find this video of how one Taiwanese little league team gets fired up of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0C-pC-VMTo

***
2009 Little League World Series opening (ESPN via YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbPa8HRSpU

With the Olympics again upon us – do your students respond to efforts to use sports to bring up other subjects?

Have students raised questions about "LINsanity" moving away from New York as Jeremy Lin signs with the Houston Rockets. (BTW - Lin is a Californian whose parents are from Taiwan.)

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP86c0073eb3844c83985cffb01068c8ee.html
edited by Clay Dube on 7/20/2012

[Anonymous]

Most kids don't realize the long history of sports in nations such as Japan and China. Western sports have usually been spread by American servicemen, trade, and now international media. It's interesting to note, for example, that the world's home run king is not Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, or even Barry Bonds, but Sadaharu Oh, a player from the Japanese baseball league who was the product of a Chinese father and Japanese mother. Mr. Oh played from 1959-1980 and had an amazing career with "[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]868 home runs, 2786 hits, and 2390 walks. He led the league in home runs 15 times and was elected MVP nine times." His 868 career home runs are over 100 more than the questionable totals by Barry Bonds, the recognized (although deserving of an asterisk), MLB leader in HRs.[/font]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Sadaharu_Oh

E. Leyva

[Anonymous]

Ok. THis post is old, but anyone who writes about United is ok by me. Park no longer plays for United. He was playing for QPR, in a rather disappointing season. He was for a long time an engine. He never stopped running. United's newest asian player is a Japanese striker, well actually probably best as a playmaker, Shinji Kagawa. He was probably played out of position last season, but was still pretty great. He was injured for most of the year.
One of the big issues in the soccer world is the role of asian tours as part of the soccer preseason. There are of course giant fan bases throughout all of asia, and team go and play exhibition games against local teams or all star teams. Mostly the teams play their "kids" (young players who are looking to impress). They often sit the stars that people come to see. These games are huge profit centers for the visiting european teams.

[Anonymous]

I have an idea for students in my Chinese class: to research on Chinese American athletes whom they know about. For example, Yao Ming, Jeremy Lin, etc. Also, in recent years some NBA players went to China to play for the CBA, a counterpart of the NBA.

[clay dube]

The Little League championships are upon us. Teams from Taiwan used to dominate the contest. That's no longer the case. What changed?
http://thediplomat.com/asia-life/2013/08/what-happened-to-taiwans-little-league-champs/

[Anonymous]

I have attended several different sporting events in Asia, including a soccer match in Indoonesia, and a sumo match in Japan. One sporting event that I still would love to see is baseball in Japan. The culture around baseball in Japan is phenomenal and I would love to compare it to American baseball games.

[Anonymous]

Can we compare team names across cultures?

[Author]

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