The rituals of Taiwan baseball fans

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study is to examine Taiwan baseball fans culture. This study mainly based on the idea of “liminality” and “liminoid” which brought by symbolic anthroupology Victor Turner. This study find that modern sports tend to show the quality of liminality. Thus I consider modern sports as a form of modern ritual. By participating baseball game and performing the rituals, Taiwan baseball fans separate from their daily routine, and thus situate in an ambiguous status where they can feel the joy of life and also get the sense of being. The rituals of Taiwan baseball fans contains various layers of meaning, first, the ritual performed by fans connote the pursuing for “victory”; second, the fans’ behaviors tend to show the quality of “religious pilgrimage”, especially during the playoffs and championship games, fans would travel with the team around Taiwan, and with such a high intensity, fans get a feeling of religious worship. Third, putting in a larger context of life, we could consider going to a baseball game as a modern form of ritual, through the active ritual cheering, and the power of witness, the baseball fans search for the ultimate goal of life, show the characteristics of what Aristotle called the ultimate human good. Being a fan or going to a game thus shows the possibility of turning life from profane into sacred.