Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974 - Softcover

Stefan Huebner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9814722030 ISBN 13: 9789814722032

Publisher: NUS Press, 2016

Synopsis

The history of regional sporting events in 20th-century Asia yields insights into Western and Asian perspectives on what defines modern Asia, and can be read as a staging of power relations in Asia and between Asia and the West. The Far Eastern Championship Games began in 1913, and were succeeded after the Pacific War by the Asian Games. Missionary groups and colonial administrations viewed sporting success not only as a triumph of physical strength and endurance but also of moral education and social reform. Sporting competitions were to shape a “new Asian man” and later a “new Asian woman” by promoting internationalism, egalitarianism and economic progress, all serving to direct a “rising” Asia toward modernity. Over time, exactly what constituted a “rising” Asia underwent remarkable changes, ranging from the YMCA’s promotion of muscular Christianity, democratization, and the social gospel in the US-colonized Philippines to Iranian visions of recreating the Great Persian Empire.

Based on a vast range of archival materials and spanning 60 years and 3 continents, Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia shows how pan-Asian sporting events helped shape anti-colonial sentiments, Asian nationalisms, and pan-Asian aspirations in places as diverse as Japan and Iran, and across the span of countries lying between them.

About this title

Review:

"The significance of this splendid book surpasses by far the history of sports. Based on a huge documentation in several languages including Japanese, Stefan Huebner provides a unique history of internationalism and identity formation in twentieth-century Asia." --Jürgen Osterhammel, University of Konstanz

"A very rich, readable, and revealing account of connections between different actors, institutions, and government agencies. The first major contribution to the history of sport across Asia."--John Sidel, London School of Economics "Huebner's imaginative, interesting, and important book shows how the concept of Asia was shaped by international sports. This is the first book on the history, in the true sense of the word, of Asian sports."--Takashima Ko, Kyoto University "Focusing on regional Asian sports events, Huebner's work makes a great contribution to the study of the entanglements between national and transnational as well as political and intellectual history in that region."--Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Goettingen "In this richly detailed and researched book, covering six decades and numerous Asian countries, historian Huebner, a research fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, investigates Asian nations and the 'active spread' of mega-sport events, including the Far Eastern Championship Games, the Western Asiatic Games, and the early Asian games."--Choice "In its breadth and depth, the research involved here is mightily impressive. The result . . . is a richly detailed study."--Sojourn "Provides a powerful model of how sports are a significant marker of modernity. . . . Resonates beyond the subject matter to explore new directions in diplomacy and modern East-West relations."--American Historical Review "Presents a salient intersection between Asian Studies, sports studies, and world history. It not only underlines the significance of sports in the context of decolonization, nation-building, and pan-Asian ideas in Asia; it also reflects the power relations between Asia and the West and the motivation of different stakeholders in politics and sports."--Journal of Southeast Asian Studies "Presents an important case that sporting games are always political." --Jakarta Post

"A fascinating contribution to the history of Asian nationalisms . . . based on rigorous and exhaustive research across archives in multiple languages in Asian, European and American archives. . . . A brilliant scholarly monograph that takes us well beyond the athletics of the Games. They were playing fields of sports but they were also battlegrounds of the most consequential political struggles of the century." --William W. Kelly, Yale University

About the Author:

Stefan Huebner is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (WiMi) at the Historical Institute, Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany.

About this edition

• Publisher: NUS Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 9814722030
• ISBN 13: 9789814722032
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544