Echopedia

Chen-Ming Wang (王建民)

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Chen-Ming Wang (王建民)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Chen-Ming Wang
  • Chinese: 王建民
  • Era: 1980
  • Geography: Tainan, Taiwan
  • Core roles: Taiwanese American (TAH Who’s Who)
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Accomplishment

  1. Internationally Renowned Baseball Pitcher / New York Yankee Team 2005-2009

Education

  • Taipei City Sports College (台北市立體育學院)

Employment

  • New York Yankees — Professional baseball pitcher — (2005-2009) — Washington Nationals — Professional baseball pitcher — (2011-2012) — Toronto Blue Jays — Professional baseball pitcher — (2013-2013) — Kansas City Royals — Professional baseball pitcher — (2016-2016) — Chinese Professional Baseball League — Pitcher coach — (2018-)

Family

  • Wife: 吳嘉姈
  • Son: Justin Jesse Wang(王鵬硯), Wellington Wang(王照升)

Timeline

  • 1980 — born in Tainan, Taiwan; 台北市立體育學院 (Taipei City Sports College)
  • 2005–2009 — New York Yankees, professional pitcher
  • 2011–2012 — Washington Nationals; 2013 — Toronto Blue Jays; 2016 — Kansas City Royals
  • 2018– — Chinese Professional Baseball League, pitcher coach
  • 2018 — documentary 《後勁：王建民》(Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story) nominated for 金馬 Golden Horse Best Documentary

Career notes (from cited TAH Who’s Who facts)

  • Born 1980 台南 (Tainan); trained at 台北市立體育學院 (Taipei City Sports College)
  • MLB pitcher: New York Yankees 2005–2009, Washington Nationals 2011–2012, Toronto Blue Jays 2013, Kansas City Royals 2016
  • 2018– CPBL pitcher coach
  • Documentary |《後勁：王建民》Late Life nominated for 金馬 (Golden Horse) Best Documentary, per TAH encyclopedia #124
  • Family: wife 吳嘉姈; sons Justin Jesse Wang (王鵬硯) and Wellington Wang (王照升) — recorded in the |TAH Foundation Who’s Who profile

Role in the Community

Beyond his MLB career, Wang became a shared reference point in the Taiwanese American community — a “台灣之光” figure whose story circulated through community media and community arts. The 2013 台灣演義 feature |台灣之光．王建民 framed him as a community symbol; the 2015 聖地牙哥台灣中心 opening concert program included 李智惠’s song 「台灣之王(王建民棒球的故事)」, performed at the center’s inauguration — i.e. his baseball story entered the community’s own musical repertoire (|162. 聖地牙哥台灣中心開幕典禮與慶祝音樂會 2015-08). The documentary |《後勁：王建民》Late Life and its Golden Horse nomination record (|124) document his comeback narrative as community history in its own right, alongside the 2016 MLB-return record (|51. 王建民重返大聯盟MLB, 2016) and his Who’s Who profiles (|104, |39).

  • 2015-08 — his baseball story is set to music as 「台灣之王」 in the 聖地牙哥台灣中心 opening-concert program (per ourjourneys162 record)
  • 2009 — World Series ring with the New York Yankees, recorded in the corpus as the second Taiwanese player to win one (per the Taiwanese American magazine feature |「台灣之光」台灣與台美運動員); the same piece places him with Yani Tseng and Jeremy Lin as athletes who became 「台灣之光」 cultural ambassadors for Taiwanese Americans — i.e. the community’s framing of him as symbol is documented in community press, not only fan memory
  • 2018 — the documentary 《後勁：王建民》received theatrical U.S. release, recorded in |LATE LIFE: The Chien-Ming Wang Story in Theaters (taiwaneseamerican.org), showing the comeback narrative reaching mainstream theater as community record
  • 2021-06 — the documentary was programmed into 大洛杉磯台灣會館’s 台美人傳統週 series, streamed online 6/5 with a director 陳惟揚 × producer 楊明燊 talkback moderated by Emily Wu — i.e. the film circulated as a community-organized heritage-week event, not only as commercial release (|TJJ record, 2021-06-03)
  • 2016-04 — 民報 feature 「願景總留給像王建民這類有夢的人」 recorded in the TJJ 台美人台加人 archive, showing his comeback used as an aspirational reference in community journalism (|TJJ archive, 2016-04-04)
  • Wang’s name appears as a 「Made in Taiwan」 success story — listed alongside Acer and BenQ — in a UN-membership advocacy essay arguing Taiwan’s democratic achievements as the basis for international recognition (|Perspectives on Taiwan and the United Nations: A Personal Journey); his public image thus functioned as civic argument, not only sports memory
  • 2020 — two bay-area-raised college students (Derek Shao, Vivienne) wrote published reflections on the documentary for taiwaneseamerican.org, framing “late life” as a metaphor for Wang’s comeback and the 2008 baserunning injury as the pivot of the narrative — evidence the story was being interpreted by the second generation (|Two Perspectives on Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story)

Quotes

大洛杉磯台灣會館生活座談與台美人傳統週活動：紀錄片《後勁:王建民》、廢棄電子產品回收、生前醫療遺囑 — 大洛杉磯台灣會館, June 3, 2021 (|TJJ 台美人傳統週 tag archive)

From the record

  • 2021-06-03 — the 大洛杉磯台灣會館 (LA Tai-Been Association) 生活座談與台美人傳統週活動 program listed the documentary 《後勁:王建民》on its heritage-week agenda alongside 廢棄電子產品回收 and 生前醫療遺囑, recorded in the TJJ 台美人傳統週 tag archive (|TJJ 台美人傳統週 tag record, 2021-06-03) — corroborating the event article record already cited above.

References in vault

Vault records (deepen pass 2026-09-10, slice 09102100-3)

The TAH encyclopedia entries cited below are themselves vault work pages:

Sources

Graph View

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