Introduction and early years Baseball was introduced to Taiwan around 1897, but it initially remained a game for Japanese bureaucrats and bankers in the colonial seat of Taihoku (modern-day
Taipei). The first official baseball team in Taiwan was formed in 1904, when the island was a
Japanese colony, by the Middle School of the Taiwan Governor-General's National Language School (present-day
Chien Kuo Senior High School). The first organized baseball game was played between this team and the team of the Normal School of the Taiwan Governor-General's National Language School (present-day
Taipei Municipal University of Education) in March 1906. From 1906 through the mid-1920s, Taiwanese baseball teams consisted mainly of
Japanese players. Taiwanese did not become actively involved in the sport until the mid-1920s. Around 1921, the first team made up of
indigenous Taiwanese peoples was established in eastern Taiwan, and it was reorganized into the Noko (; also known as
Nenggao) team. As part of the reorganization, Japanese officials offered players on the team the opportunity to attend the Hualien Agricultural School. That the Noko team consisted completely of indigenous Taiwanese, rather than Japanese or
Han Taiwanese players, was a milestone in racial integration, albeit often noted through a colonial lens. Nonetheless, the success and popularity of the team laid the foundation for the further development of baseball in southern Taiwan, notably Takao First Public School in present-day Qijin,
Kaohsiung, and Mawuku Public School in present-day
Taitung County.
Colonial participation By 1931, high school baseball had become very popular in Taiwan, even though of all players dating back to 1923 in the Islandwide High School Baseball Tournaments, only 5.2% were
ethnic Taiwanese. The baseball team of
Kagi Agriculture and Forestry Institute, hailing from
Chiayi, played its way into the final of that year’s
Summer Koshien tournament, becoming the only Taiwanese team to every do so, although they lost in to Chūkyō Commercial. The team arrived as one of 22 district representatives out of a total of 631 team across the empire. Historians have noted the significance of the "tri-ethnic" Kano squad, consisting of
Japanese,
Han Taiwanese, and
indigenous Taiwanese students. == Professional baseball ==