News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　Unveiling in 1915, the Koshien High School Baseball Championship in Japan witnessed the beginning of a fever for baseball in Taiwan and Japan. Asahi Shimbun, CEO of Nagayama Yoshitaka, which had described National Chiayi University as “the Unequaled Kano,” returned to the baseball field of NCYU with his wife and one of his friends on Nov. 16th at 5:00 p.m. The group of six was received by NCYU President Chiou Yi-Yuan and NCYU Alumni Association honorary chairman Chai Wu-Zhang, Wearing KANO-themed short-sleeved shirts and sport caps, they ran around the running track twice, reliving the memories of jogging fifteen years ago.

　　According to Nagayama Yoshitaka, in his first visit to National Chia Yi Institute of Agriculture (NCYIA), now NCYU, during January of 1993, he collected documentary materials here with his late friend Shiba Ryotaro, who authored A Taiwan Journey, for the book. After jogging around the sports field, Shiba Ryotaro told him he liked Chiayi very much, and the two promised to revisit the place in the future. They returned to NCYIA on Dec. 31st, 1998 to fulfill the age-old promise. In his third visit at NCYU, he was accompanied by a Japanese friend of his who was also born in Taiwan and received elementary schooling in Chiayi. Both of them have a deep affection for Chiayi and remember fondly the place.

　　In 1928, NCYIA, now NCYU, founded its first baseball team called “Kano Baseball Team.” In the summer of 1931, under the guidance of Kondo Hyotaro, a Japanese standout player at Koshien, the team created the best accomplishment in the history of baseball in Taiwan. The team is not only one of the most important baseball delegations in the baseball history in Taiwan, but a long-standing symbol of great perseverance and tenacity of the Taiwanese to the people in Japan.

　　Directed by Wei Desheng and scheduled for release next February, the film “KANO” tells the story of how the Kano Baseball Team made it to the the Koshien High School Baseball Championship five times from 1931 to 1936, and thus feted as “the Unequaled Kano.” The movie tries to portray the hardship of training the baseball team players had undergone and the spirit of baseball.