There was a time not too long ago when the future of baseball in Taiwan was in doubt. The sport was rife with game-fixing scandals, and public trust—both with the in-person crowds and the home viewing audience—had dropped to a level where the business of the game was no longer sound.

From the late 1990s through the early 2010s, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was on the edge of ruin. The game had been brought to Taiwan during the years of Japanese rule (1895–1945). In the years after, it grew to be the country’s most loved sport, and in the late 1980s, the CPBL rose as the main stage for professional play.

But starting in the 1990s, one scandal after another rocked the game. Players, coaches, and even team leaders were drawn into match-fixing rings, often under threat or bribe from criminal groups. The damage was immense. With the trust in the sport broken, crowds turned away. Whole teams folded, and the league itself fought to stay alive.

In the wake of those years, teams looked for ways to bring fans back and reenergize the games. They started to see games not just as competitions, but as events. This shift was shaped by what they had seen in other sports, where game day was about more than the score. In Taiwan, a key piece in this change turned out to be cheerleaders.

What began in the 1990s as small cheer squads on the side of the field grew into a new form of live show. Teams built groups that danced, sang, led chants, and engaged with the crowd. They blended pop songs with local flair, and they did not stop when their team was down. The cheer squads kept the fire of the crowd alive, and they made sure that folks left the park with a smile on their faces, whether their team won or lost.

The effect was clear. Game-day crowds swelled. In time, league attendance tripled. Baseball in Taiwan was no longer just about the box score. It became a day-long party built on songs, dance, and of course, cheering. The performances have helped diversify the fanbase by drawing in more families, young adults, and women to the crowd, and if you ever happen to visit or see a shot of the stands during the games, you’ll undoubtedly notice how much the crowds love it. Adults enthusiastically shout during “holler back” cheers, little kids hop and bounce at their seats doing their best to imitate the squads’ choreographed dances, and naturally, young men are often doing their best to get a photo or video of the lovely ladies for… posterity. It may be a far cry from the more laid back baseball tradition in the United States, but the experience is unapologetically raucous and vibrant.

Each CPBL team is owned by and named after large Taiwanese corporations, a similar practice seen in Japan’s NPB and South Korea’s KBO, and every one now has its own cheer squad. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions have the Uni-Girls, the squad with the longest history dating back to mid-1990s. The Rakuten Monkeys field the well-known Rakuten Girls. The CTBC Brothers have their Passion Sisters, the TSG Hawks their Wing Stars, the Fubon Guardians have their Angels, and the Wei Chuan Dragons have the unimaginatively named Dragon Sisters. Each group has grown to about a dozen members, which has become the norm for squads across the league. 

While most cheerleaders are Taiwanese, the squads have also drawn from abroad, with a few South Korean stars gaining a strong fan base. Names like Lee Da-hye and Lee Joo-eun (both of the Rakuten Monkeys) have added fresh flair and helped boost the sport’s image overseas. Still, foreign members make up less than five percent of the whole. 

While there are in fact male cheerleaders, Taiwanese baseball cheerleading squads are predominantly female. The exact distribution of females to males varies between teams and events. For instance, in the context of the World Baseball Classic, the cheer squad featured both genders.

Anyway, that’s enough about the dudes…

Beyond ticket sales, the squads have contributed additional revenue to the teams through merchandise sales such as photobooks, posters, and apparel, helping to keep the games financially viable even during less competitive seasons. Many cheerleaders have also become cultural icons in their own right, gaining fame for their performances, fan interaction, and social media presence. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have amplified their level of celebrity, and many cheerleaders have posted content that blends behind-the-scenes footage, promotional material, and of course videos of their performances, and promotional events. The more popular cheerleaders leverage their fame to snag endorsements from brands outside of baseball (i.e. fashion, beauty, sports equipment), or to create content such as lifestyle vlogs, or dance tutorials. 

Off the field, the cheerleaders often model, act, host, or appear in other media, with some transitioning to careers in these fields when they retire from cheerleading. While most cheerleaders are between 18 and 25 years old (which is unsurprising given how physically demanding the job is), some squad members stay on board longer than others, especially if they have built a strong personal brand or gained a significant following of fans. Others stay involved with the squads by taking on leadership roles like choreography, recruitment, training, or squad management.

Today, Taiwanese baseball is known not just for play on the field, but for the life in the stands. Fans sing team songs, wave banners, and shout along with cheers that run from the opening pitch to the last out. It is a living, shared ritual that blends sport, music, and showmanship that helped steer a nearly broken sport into a thriving show. That’s not to say that the ladies did it all on their own. The teams also made significant investments in improving the stadiums, while public disapproval from past cheating scandals has died down, thanks in large part to stricter league governance. All of these changes stem from a fans-first mindset, and you can’t help but cheer for that. 

And maybe dance a little bit, too.

Thanks for reading!

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