9/14/2006

Foreign Baseball Players Discriminated Against in Taiwan

Over the past few years, "foreign" baseball players playing in the Chinese Baseball League (CBL) in Taiwan have been barred from participating in Taiwan's annual all-star game. When and if Taiwan's Wang Chien-ming 王建民 (17-5, 3.60), currently pitching for the New York Yankees, makes MLB's all-star game, this should make for an interesting contrast.
ICRT's (Taiwan's kind of English radio station) morning DJ Rick Monday interviewed a couple of "foreign" players a couple years back. When he brought up this topic, the players decided to refrain from making a comment. The uncomfortable silence was long enough, however, to indicate they were miffed.
The Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Chapter I: General Provisions, Article 5 states the following: "There shall be equality among the various racial groups in the Republic of China [Taiwan]." In my opinion, the "in" in this provision is interesting. If it were to read "of" then the kind of racial discrimination the Chinese Baseball League (CBL) is engaging could be interpreted as legal. As it is, the racial groups "of" Taiwan includes these players.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When does a Taiwanese ever played in the all-star game in US? What is your problem with it? It is fair because the Chinese have prejudice in America for a long time.

Constance Collier, Osoyoos, B.C.

I looked up Constance Collier (1878-1955). Born in Windsor, England, Collier was "known to be very tall with a big personality." S...