I look forward to bringing educational and fun experiences in Asia to my granddaughter Mila, who lives in Oklahoma, USA. She can learn about the world vicariously through all my adventures. I got a flat stuffed toy to join me. She is reversible. One side is a little girl, with angel wings and the other is a ladybug. I call her LadyB. I sent the same toy to Mila, which she can name as she sees fit. My Chinese name is Gonggong (公公), which means grandfather in Chinese.

I want to also share my China life with other youngsters and adults, so enjoy the stories. Hopefully you can show them around.

I posted the first 15 on Facebook and got many complaints from fans who hate it, don’t use it or got banned, of which there are more than you realize. Not just them, but Facebook – not to mention Instagram, Reddit, Quora, SoundCloud, StumbleUpon/Mix, Substack, TikTok, X and YouTube – all heavily shadow ban/block me, as you can see below. Therefore, I decided to start posting them on China Rising Radio Sinoland, where I have the artistic freedom that you deserve to fully enjoy. Catching up with #12 here.

Typical Facebook censorship. All three of their explanations are utter BS. It’s there, but you have to dig to get to it.

ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB AND GONGGONG
Story #13: Taiwanese are N-U-T-S about baseball! Japanese too…
Puli Town, Nantou County, Taiwan Province, China.

Dear Granddaughter Mila,

One of the most surprising aspects of Taiwanese culture is their unbridled passion for baseball. Your father, uncle (and their father, RIP) are (was) crazy about baseball. But, they cannot hold a burning incense stick to the Taiwanese, who live and breathe baseball. Taiwanese don’t have international football, basketball or US football. The French have football and rugby. In Taiwan, baseball is their sole love of sports.

Everywhere LadyB and I go, there is a TV screen with a baseball game being played. Shops, pharmacies, businesses, restaurants, offices – baseball games are plastered on TVs! We see baseball fields full of kids in uniforms, practicing and playing. Like children in Brazil playing football in an abandoned grassy area, we see young ones here tossing baseballs in parking lots and in home gardens.

We were at a Vietnamese restaurant a couple of evenings ago and Taiwan was playing Japan for the World Baseball Classic Series championship, in Tokyo. Right next to the TV was a Buddhist altar. Everyone was praying for a miracle.

The TV was just to the left of this restaurant’s Buddhist altar. I think the diners packed in the place were looking at it for inspiration, as much as the game!

The Japanese were heavily favored, having been the annual champion since 2019. We watched a couple of innings over delicious pho soup, fresh spring rolls and fried nem. What struck us was how young the Taiwanese players looked. The Taiwanese pitcher had a pimply face, seemed out of control and was aggressively throwing balls at the Japanese batters’ heads and torsos, rattling them. I guess it worked, because when we left, it was still 0-0 in the third inning, and they smoked Japan 4-0 in the end.

Baseball, Buddhas, Happy Cat, whiskey, artificial roses and firecrackers adorn the TV.

It looked just like a US MLB game: the stats, the grumpy managers in the dugouts, the pow-wows on the mound to discuss the pitching. The fans in the massive Japanese stadium were going wild, which was 95% locals.

This Japanese batter had Batman-style eye-shading on his face, but it was not good enough. Taiwan ended up dominating this championship game.

The next day, everybody we talked to was on Cloud Nine. I would congratulate strangers we talked to, and they were just beaming with pride. The fact that a Chinese-speaking foreigner knew about it made them smile even more! It is Taiwan’s first international championship and doing it in Japan makes it extra sweet. Not to mention that Japan colonized Taiwan for 50 years, 1895-1945, so there is a heavy historical theme of revenge on top of it all.

Your Great-Great Grandfather Brownie, Great-Grandfather G-Pa and I were huge St. Louis Cardinal fans, when I was growing up in Oklahoma. I quit watching baseball when I went to Tunisia in the Peace Corps, 1980-1982 and from then on, lived overseas.

Who knows, maybe living in Taiwan will get me back onto the baseball field again!

Love, Grandfather Gonggong