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

The first major study of the history of sports across Asia, Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia reveals how the history of regional sporting events in Asia during the twentieth century can be read as a staging of power relations both within Asia and between Asia and the West. ?Looking specifically at the Far Eastern Championship Games that began in 1913, the Western Asiatic Games of 1934, and the early Asian Games of 1951–74, Stefan Huebner ?describes how 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. He argues that sporting competitions were used to shape the idea of a "new Asian man" and later a "new Asian woman" by promoting internationalism, egalitarianism, and economic progress.

Based on a vast range of archival materials,?Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia shows how sporting events helped shape anti-colonial sentiments, Asian nationalisms, and cultural aspirations in places such as the Philippines, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Iran.
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Stefan Huebner is a historian of colonialism, modernization, and development policy and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
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