The Great China Baseball Hunt
Baseball is America’s pastime. In China, it’s followed by relatively few fans and played by even fewer.
In China, there is no Little League, no high school baseball and few qualified baseball coaches. Baseball diamonds? Still a rarity. Cleveland has more diamonds in its limits than all of China, the world’s most populous country.
But there surely are talented baseball players in a country of 1.4 billion people, a nation so massive that more than 100 cities have a population of one million or more.
That’s the drama at the center of our documentary film, The Great China Baseball Hunt. A player from Mainland China has never made it to the American big leagues. Major League Baseball is on a quest to find that player.
At a time of heightened tensions between the United States and China, it is more important than ever to create/produce/tell stories that promote compassion and understanding. Using baseball as a bridge, the intent of the film is to bring the world closer through the inspirational story of how sport can change lives.
This is a story of Ray Chang, a Chinese-American baseball lifer who once came tantalizingly close to making the big leagues himself and now leads MLB’s search for talent from Shanghai and Beijing to the most remote reaches of Tibet. It’s the story of Major League Baseball officials seeking the Yao Ming of their sport. The intriguing prospects include Jolon Zhao, discovered when he was just 16 and now a 20-year-old pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers' Minor League system. Compellingly, our film is also the story of Chinese children as young as 11 years old leaving their family homes to try to make it in what is for them an exotic sport in a faraway country – the United States.
Our Filmmakers
Jeff Barker has been a reporter for more than 30 years for The Associated Press, Arizona Republic and Baltimore Sun(currently). He has covered news, sports and Washington politics. In 2014, he was named one of the nation’s top 10 sports beat writers by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He is co-author of the book “Perfecting your Pitch” with Ron Shapiro, the former agent to Cal Ripken. He lives with his wife and daughter in Silver Spring, MD.
Kenneth Eng is a director, editor and executive producer. His second feature length documentary, Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball, about the famous Koshien tournament in Japan, was nationally broadcast on PBS and continues to play in Japan on NHK-TV. In 2007, Ken was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship to launch My Life In China. Recently, he edited Tested for director Curtis Chin, and is currently collaborating with him on a film about the challenges faced by Chinatowns across America.
Mark Hyman is director of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland. In 2015, while a professor at George Washington University, students in Mark’s “Sport Globalization: MLB China” course spent eight days in China observing MLB's plan to develop a Chinese Major Leaguer. This was the creative spark that led to the film project. As a sports journalist, Mark covered sports for BusinessWeek for ten years. His books include Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids.
What We Need & What You Get
We are raising $50,000 to bring on an editor to finish a rough-cut of the film. Any left-over funds will be put towards festival entry fees, sound, design and other production costs. We are truly grateful for any amount you are able to contribute.
Your generosity will allow us to share our story with others. As an expression of our gratitude, we'd like to offer you something in return. Please check out the right-hand side of the page for our list of gifts and other donor incentives.
Other Ways You Can Help
We completely understand that a monetary donation is not the best contribution for everyone. If you feel compelled by our campaign, sharing our story with your networks is a tremendous help.
Should you have any questions for our team, don't hesitate to reach out to us at barkmanmedia@gmail.com or visit our website https://chinabaseballfilm.com for more information.
Thank you for your support.
