The Baseball Carnival in Taiwan: A Study of Fans, Spatial Interactions and Atmospheres in Stadiums
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Pan, Yu-Hang
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The development of baseball in Taiwan has been over one hundred years. Baseball, in its era of professionalism (which includes commoditization) since Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) founded in 1990, has become one of the representations of Taiwanese popular culture, attracting a great variety of baseball fans over 17 years. These fans acquire evasion and pleasures of productivity from baseball games, creating the unique baseball culture in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, most baseball fans are males. Some females (mothers or girlfriends) usually play an accompany role in the stadium. The baseball idol fans in Taiwan mostly refer to those who prefer good-looking rather than good-skill players. The underlying essence of baseball, competition, makes it the most basic and strict standard to at least understand the rules and the game. It is, therefore, hard for those idol fans to admit that they are watching the game because of those good-looking players.
Baseball stadiums in Taiwan make the fans feel at home. The at-home feeling is transcended by a sense of familiar atmosphere rather than any specific stadium. Comparing with the old baseball stadiums, the present stadiums in use have been improved a lot in their facilities. For many Taiwanese baseball fans, the baseball stadiums in U.S and Japan are just like their pilgrimages of baseball.
Baseball game in Taiwan is like Bakhtin’s the medieval carnival. Baseball game offers an exit for normal boring lives. There are no class or status differences in the baseball stadiums. In the process of a baseball game, fans are not only spectators but active participants. Fans in different stands will behave differently, it’s an example that space and people affect interactively. The baseball stadiums in Taiwan are full of shout and yell and carnival atmosphere. The cheer squad is the important role to create atmosphere. Beside the cheer squad, we also can use Bakhtin’s carnival theory to explain other people interactions in baseball stadiums. There are three fundamental forms: The first are collective rituals like the wave ; the second are comedies(words) productions like make-ups, parodies and humiliation; the third are various baseball languages like cheering slogans and trash talks.
Subjects
職業棒球
球迷
愉悅
棒球場
嘉年華
professional baseball
fans
pleasure
baseball stadium
carniva
Type
thesis
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