Football in Taiwan: From Missionaries to Mulan – S6-E14

About this episode

This episode explores Taiwan's rich football heritage leading up to the 2026 World Cup.

As we head into the 2026 World Cup, we take a look at Taiwan’s surprisingly rich football heritage. Although a minor sport today, there have been periods of intense popularity and success. The soccer story starts more than a century ago with British Presbyterian missionary Edward Band, who introduced the sport to students in Tainan. We follow the growth of football during the Japanese colonial era, the White Terror crackdown, and then the unusual “Hong Kong Legs” era when the ROC national team used “football mercenaries.” The country’s greatest international success, however, came with the Mulan women’s football team.

People in this episode

Hosts: John Ross, Eryk Michael Smith

Topics covered

• football heritage
• Taiwan history
• sports
• colonial impact
• women's football
• international success

Keywords

• football
• Taiwan
• Edward Band
• Mulan
• ROC national team
• Japanese colonial era
• White Terror
• sports history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ROC national team

Books & works: Mulan women’s football team

Places: Taiwan, Tainan, Hong Kong

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