Zhang Wenshan instructs the children to play ball. Photo by Zhu Xiaoying
Talking about the ball twice shed tears Taiwan's "old boy" Kunshan brought out baseball and softball "Dashan Family"
China News Network Kunshan, March 5 Title: (In the face of The Soviet and Taiwan compatriots) Talking about the ball twice shed tears Taiwan's "old boy" Kunshan brought out baseball and softball "Dashan Family"
China News Network reporter Zhu Xiaoying
At 6:00 a.m. on the 5th, the temperature was low. On the green field of Huacheng Meidi Primary School in Zhoushi Town, Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, Zhang Wenshan, a "post-70s" Taiwan compatriot, changed into a blue baseball and softball suit and prepared for the entrance training of the children entering the school with his wife. At 6:30 a.m., the children went into training on time.
"The ball of the first and second bases is replenished and then the point is indeed", "Adjust the height of the ball", "When the attack and defense are exchanged, quickly encircle"... On the green field, Zhang Wenshan sometimes watched the game from the sidelines, clapped his hands and applauded, and sometimes stopped training and entered the field for guidance.
Children salute their teammates with etiquette. Photo by Zhu Xiaoying
Zhang Wenshan's wife is from Anhui. This cross-strait family has appeared here in the "more than two thousand mornings."
For eight years, they volunteered as baseball and softball coaches at Huacheng Meidi Primary School in Zhoushi Town. Before the morning reading, they trained the children to play ball, rain or shine. They also volunteered to serve as baseball and softball coaches at Zhoushi Middle School and Zhoushi High School, and the primary and secondary school teams they taught won championships in national competitions for consecutive years, sending a number of talents to the mainland professional baseball team.
Zhang Wenshan watched from the sidelines. Photo by Zhu Xiaoying
Kunshan in southern Jiangsu Province is known as "Little Taipei", and more than 100,000 Taiwan compatriots have settled here. Zhoushi Town is located on the outskirts of Kunshan. A Taiwanese coach in a small town in southern Jiangsu, without pay, brought out a number of national primary and secondary school championship teams, which was rumored to be a good story in the industry and attracted a lot of curiosity.
"Hearing my name, many people will think of Taiwanese lyricist Fang Wenshan. In fact, we have a difference: he is good at literature, I am good at martial arts. Zhang Wenshan said amusedly.
Zhang Wenshan was born in Taipei in 1973. He joked that in the past 48 years, his life has experienced ups and downs, and what has not changed is this "baseball and softball".
Baseball and softball are popular in Taiwan. As a teenager, the lively and active Zhang Wenshan was attracted to the baseball and softball that ran all over the field and insisted on practicing for many years. After graduating from a Taiwanese university majoring in international trade, Zhang Wenshan worked in a family-owned company in Taiwan that worked on scale measurement. Because he was optimistic about the mainland market, the company owner decided to open an electronics factory in Kunshan, so he sent him to the mainland as a sales manager.
When he arrived in Kunshan, Zhang Wenshan was 27 years old. "At that time, the surrounding area was in addition to the factory and the field. I left my hometown and had no friends, so I took the lead in organizing the Kunshan Taiwan Merchants Softball League in my spare time, and also played games with foreign businessmen around Kunshan. ”
The player is hitting the ball. Photo by Zhu Xiaoying
Three years later, Zhang Wenshan, who was "thirty and standing", tried to start a business, but experienced a short period of entrepreneurial frustration due to partner funds, risk control and other reasons. He re-served as an executive at a Taiwan-funded company in Kunshan that was engaged in carton making, and his career stabilized. "Business was frustrated, but the playing never stopped. Baseball and softball and friends accompanied me out of the trough of my life. ”
In 2013, Huacheng Meidi Primary School in Zhoushi Town invited Zhang Wenshan to the school as a part-time baseball and softball coach. "Being a coach was my childhood dream, and the moment I received the invitation, I agreed without even thinking about it." As a result, after arriving at school, the children's diverse personalities surprised him. He began to "fight wits and courage", while passing on technology, while establishing rules, introducing the "senior system" and "master-apprentice system", and the children's training was slowly on the right track.
Later, the number of invitations increased, and some schools that took the initiative to find offered class hour fees. "Maybe it could be done for your own business." With this idea, he decided to completely transform and "train" his wife into a peer: the husband and wife passed the examination and became a professional coach of baseball and softball.
After years of effort, there will be a return. The Hwaseong Meidi Elementary School baseball and softball team they led won the 5th-6th grade glove group championship of the National Soft Baseball Softball U Series Championship in 2018 and 2019, and the Zhoushi Middle School baseball and softball team also won the junior high school group championship in 2019.
The kids are playing a game. Photo by Zhu Xiaoying
Looking back at the moment of winning the championship for the first time in 2018, Zhang Wenshan shed tears. "In order to improve, the children practice very hard. In that final in 2018, our children suffered some losses in age and height. At that time, we developed a small ball tactic, not to fight the strength to spell the point, the ball path is also more tricky. When it came, we changed our tactics again, confused the other side, and won the final victory. ”
Over the years, the couple has brought more than 1,000 students. "The alumni association has a group named 'Dashan Family', one is that there is 'Mountain' in my name, and the other is that everyone is united like a mountain." Zhang Wenshan used his hands to make an angled gesture.
Remembering the "teasing" of the "Dashan Family" on him, Zhang Wenshan wept again.
On a day of training in the summer of 2019, Zhang Wenshan rushed back to the school from outside to prepare for training, but found that there was no one on the playground. He has always been strict and demanding. Approaching the classroom, I found newspapers plastered on the glass. Holding his breath, he pushed open the classroom door and was about to question him, but was stunned by the picture in front of him: the children pushed out a three-tier cake, each chocolate with the names of the team members written on it; the huge signature board was full of blessings for the coach, leaving a box in the middle to sign the coach himself. Later, he learned that the children had spent half a year in secret discussions in order to prepare for this surprise.
"I was really impressed at the time... These years with the children, like family. He choked up.
With this dedication and love, this "old boy" decided to deepen the mainland sports industry. In his view, the mainland baseball and softball sport remains in the top twenty in the world rankings, belonging to the "rising star", and international professional leagues and youth training are blossoming in many ways.
He suggested setting up baseball and softball training bases in many parts of the mainland to jointly promote the cause of baseball and softball to play "home runs" through cross-strait cooperation and the establishment of alliances. (End)
Source: China News Network