Red Leaf Little League Memorial Museum Introduction
Hongye Village, named for its autumn maple leaves, is a typical Bunun tribe settlement that retains its pure and primitive appearance. In its early days, it was a small community primarily focused on corn cultivation. Hongye Elementary School is the birthplace of the famous Hongye Little League team, which played a significant role in promoting the development of baseball in Taiwan and gained fame overseas. The principal of Hongye Elementary at that time, Lin Zhu-Peng, noticed poor student attendance and realized that the physically active indigenous children enjoyed outdoor activities and hunting, and were also quite passionate about baseball. This inspired him to establish a formal baseball team, thus beginning the legendary story of Hongye Little League. The glorious achievements and memories from that time are preserved in the Hongye Little League Memorial Hall located within the school campus, where equipment used by the team, stories of baseball heroes, precious photographs, and artifacts are displayed, recreating the heroic figures and glorious moments of past baseball legends, making it a must-visit place for those tracing the history of baseball development in Taiwan. The second floor of the hall features a Bunun Culture Museum and an audio-visual room, linking Bunun culture with the Hongye Little League and helping to better understand the role and status of indigenous people in Taiwan's development. Due to the Hongye Little League, baseball has become one of the representative sports in Taitung, where grassroots baseball teams can often be seen playing friendly matches at roadside fields. Players trained in various schools frequently represent the country in international competitions, and even professional baseball teams use Taitung as their training location, ensuring that the baseball culture remains vibrant.
