In a nutshell, this study is a history of ideas about the nation and the meaning of ‘Asia’ in the twentieth century based on sports events. Its main question is this: Why and how did the early Asian Games and their predecessors turn into sites of contestation of the nation and of visions of a modern Asia. (10)
There are monographs on sports in a single country (Guttmann & Thompson, Citation2001; Manzenreiter, Citation2014); a single sport in a single country (Havens, Citation2015); and a single sport in two different countries (Guthrie-Shimizu, Citation2012). This book is about sports in a multi-country region: Asia. Stefan Huebner explores two sporting events – the Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG) and the Asian Games – and their relationship to the development of the concept of Asia in the twentieth century. In this review, I can only touch on a few of the many insights derived from the abundant details and perceptive analysis provided in this original study.
Huebner points out that the Games served a ‘communicative purpose’ (9) for the host countries, delivering messages about the nation to its citizens and to the world at large. He uses three theoretical concepts in his analysis: ‘authoritarian high modernism,’ ethnosymbolism, and nation-branding (10–13). For each occasion of these Games over a period of 60 years, the author discusses such aspects as their historical background; the state of sports in the country at the time; the main figures behind organizing the Games; the motives behind hosting the Games; and the relative focus on such ideals as Asian unity, anti-neocolonial internationalism, and Western amateur sports ideals. In addition to referencing traditional written sources such as publications and meeting minutes, the author also analyzes the infrastructure (stadiums and monuments) built for the games; the design of medals, flags, and other ritual accouterments; and the opening and closing ceremonies and other rituals.
The American branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) had a strong influence in introducing, promoting and defining modern sports in the Phillipines, Japan, and China, the countries where this account begins. Their motive or purpose was to ‘civilize’ these ‘backward’ countries through ‘muscular Christianity,’ which was thought to be an ideal means to promote the principles of internationalism, egalitarianism, and economic progress. ‘The “Western civilizing mission” and the Asian resistance … are the foundations of all the developments in the realm of early Asian sports events’ (3), and Chapter 1 introduces this dynamic. As the author notes, ‘the pan-Asian rejection of Western colonialism did not automatically mean rejecting Western civilization per se. Instead, it involved interacting with Western civilization by appropriating some of its elements, challenging others, and sending messages back to the West’ (3). The account of these appropriations, challenges, and messages makes up the rest of this book.
The YMCA’s physical director in the American colony of the Philippines, Elwood Brown, organized the first FECG in Manila in 1913. The FECG were intended to ‘spread Western amateur sports norms and values as the foundation of Christian internationalism’ in the Philippines, Japan, and China (30). In their early years, the Games were controlled by Americans affiliated with the YMCA. Since their aim was to ‘educate, not entertain’ the spectators (45), costs were kept low and staging was simple.
The FECG were held ten times, roughly once every two years from 1913 to 1934 (see ). Chapter 2 describes their development, growth and eventual dissolution, and the attempt by India to establish a ‘Western Asiatic Games’ in 1934. Over its history, the event underwent a process of ‘Asiatization,’ which entailed the transfer of leadership from Americans to Asians and ‘the integration of the Games and amateur sports ideals into local cultural backgrounds’ (56). ‘Asiatization … happened in the contexts of three different nations struggling against different degrees of Western colonialism and paternalism and for sportive self-governance’ (99).
Table 1. Far Eastern Championship Games host countries (15).
The number of athletes and spectators grew significantly over the two decades as well, and escalating media interest in the form of newspaper and radio coverage increased the FECG’s entertainment value (82–83). However, the escalating war between Japan and China eventually precluded the continuation of the Games. ‘[T]he idea of egalitarian internationalization, which was supported through amateur sport, only worked as long as political borders did not change violently, (73) a condition that was violated with the creation of the Manchukuo state.
India participated in the Ninth FECG in 1930, and the author discusses the rather similar experience of the introduction of Western sports to India through the American YMCA. India then went on to host a ‘West Asian Games’ in 1934, but for financial and other reasons they were not a success, and were not continued.
Based partly on this experience, however, Indian officials founded the Asian Games Federation (AGF) in 1949 to ‘support their postcolonial foreign policy of integrating the whole Asian continent,’ East, West, and South (emphasis in original; 102). The First Asian Games, held in New Delhi in 1951, are discussed in Chapter 3. Eleven countries participated: Afghanistan, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Huebner asserts that those Games ‘without doubt were a strong symbolic orchestration of peace between many Asian countries that were newly independent or allegedly “reborn” (i.e., Japan)’ (122). The AGF adopted the slogan of ‘Ever Onward,’ an expression of the desire for progress and development in the region. However, for political and economic reasons, not all eligible countries were represented. Taiwan and Pakistan were not present, while the People’s Republic of China sent observers (110).
The Second Asian Games were held in the Philippines in 1954 in the context of the deepening Cold War, as related in Chapter 4. The Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Israel, Malaya, North Borneo, Pakistan, South Korea, and South Vietnam all participated for the first time, and the number of participating countries increased to 20 (129), but as the Philippines were a ‘de facto semi-colony of the United States’ (126), no communist-governed countries participated. The author comments that the ideal of ‘egalitarian internationalism’ became ‘entangled’ with American foreign policy (130).
Japan utilized the occasion of hosting the Third Asian Games in 1958 to ‘reclaim the role of Asia’s most modern and developed country and to promote that image, together with one of peaceful internationalism and being a “country of culture”, at home and abroad’ (148). They were held in Tokyo, whose governor proclaimed that the peoples of Asia are ‘bound together in blood, culture and history’ (152). Japan used the Games to successfully pursue its bid for the 1964 Olympics. New facilities were constructed, including Kasumigaoka National Stadium, which served as the main stadium for the Third Asian Games and six years later for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. (This historical structure was demolished to make way for the New National Stadium being constructed to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.) The country spent a huge amount of money on these facilities and elaborate opening and closing ceremonies, as well as a daily entertainment program at the main stadium (166). According to the author, ‘one of the most important changes the Third Asian Games brought about was the rising importance of the staging of the Games compared to the earlier aim of educating spectators by making them take up amateur sports as citizenship training’ (173). The Third Games also served the political purpose of promoting ‘the belief that the emperor was Japan’s head of state’, as it was the emperor who declared the Games open, ‘a task the constitution of the AGF reserved for the head of state’ (163).
Chapter 6 takes up the Fourth Asian Games held in Indonesia in 1962, ‘the first Asian Games to take place in a semi-authoritarian country’, which strongly influenced their staging and the ideals they proclaimed (174). ‘The Fourth Asian Games were one of the most politically instrumentalized and state-controlled editions of the early Asian Games’ (178). While government officials had been involved in the hosting of earlier Games, here they took central and leading roles. ‘The Fourth Asian Games thus became a showcase for the semi-authoritarian Indonesian government’s large-scale modernization and development projects that aimed at staging – and realizing – rapid national progress and catching up with the “developed countries” as soon as possible’ (175).
Indonesia attempted to change ‘the regional character of the Asian Games in accordance with Indonesia’s non-aligned foreign policy’ (182). Egypt was invited by the local organizer, but its application was narrowly rejected by the AGF. (The representative from India, Guru Dutt Sondhi, wryly remarked that ‘according to all geography books’ Egypt is in Africa; 183.) Taiwan and Israel were barred, in a sense rejecting the ideal of ‘egalitarian internationalism’. This led the International Olympic Committee to suspend the Indonesian National Olympic Committee, and in response Indonesia created a new event: the Games of the New Emerging Forces, which were held in Jakarta in 1963 with representatives from 51 nations (185–187).
Huebner concludes that the Fourth Asian Games ‘had an immense impact on the further development of the Asian Games and, to a lesser degree, the Olympic Games,’ in that ‘the hitherto very important idea of amateur sport as a means for citizenship training and egalitarian internationalism was massively challenged’ (199). In its stead ‘the Fourth Asian Games strengthened the tendency … to use them for nation-branding purposes by showing national achievements and cultural authenticity both to the population and to an international audience’ (200).
The Fifth and Sixth Asian Games were held in Thailand in 1966 and 1970, and are discussed in Chapter 7. The 1966 Games closely followed the First International Asian Trade Fair held in Bangkok, and both projects were meant to promote economic development, foreign investment, and foreign tourism, leading Huebner to remark that the promotion of sport should ‘be seen as a part of the “high modernist” thinking of the authoritarian government, which included large-scale infrastructure construction plans not only for irrigation systems and highways in the rural areas, but also for playgrounds …’ (209–210). Thailand was one of the United States’ closest allies, and communist-ruled countries did not participate in either of the Games. The ceremonies and symbols promoted the personality cult of the king (219–225).
The Asian Games were held in West Asia for the first time in 1974, in Tehran, Iran. As related in Chapter 8, the main figures in organizing the Games were again people ‘very closely affiliated with the government’ (234), and the government spent ‘hundreds of millions of petrodollars’ (260) on infrastructure, cultural programs, and other aspects of holding the Games. As a result, ‘[e]ducation through amateur norms and values almost completely vanished from the discourse, since sports consumption as entertainment and as a means of generating national pride increased in importance’ (231).
In his assessment, Huebner states: ‘the Seventh Asian Games marked a highly significant turning point in the history of the Asian Games in terms of region, sports ideals, and political instrumentalization by the host government’ (257). Many Arab countries joined the AGF for these Games, which shifted the balance of power in the organization. China and North Korea also were included, while Taiwan was excluded in 1974 and Israel from 1978.
According to Huebner, the Seventh Asian Games saw the clash of three different sport ideologies, two old and one relatively recent. ‘The tensions between Western egalitarian internationalism as a means for “civilized” interaction and the nationalistic drive to win medals by all means for prestige purposes and for supporting state nationalism were nothing new.’ (258) The third competing ideology was the novel but powerful concept of ‘international sport as a business’ (259).
In the concluding chapter, Huebner discusses ‘the most important continuities and discontinuities’ of these regional sporting events over six decades (262). One discontinuity is in the composition of the organizers, which saw a shift from ‘professional sports experts’ to politicians. The latter had more heterogeneous social backgrounds than the former, which resulted in the promotion of ‘different Asianisms and nationalisms’ (266).
Another area is that of pan-Asianism versus nationalism. ‘While the egalitarian conception of Asia was thus relatively undebated, the respective contents of Asia and Asian nationalisms differed strongly between host countries’ (267). As the influence of the YMCA declined, ‘pan-Asianism promoted by Asians, rather than by paternalistic Americans, emerged’ (268–269). However, even then Huebner teases out ‘two different Asianisms,’ one based on egalitarian internationalism, and another he calls a ‘hegemonic Asianism,’ in which one or another country seeks a hegemonic role (269).
A third area relates to the purpose of the Games, which includes such themes as modernization, development, and nation-branding. In a nutshell, the original ‘civilizing mission’ of the Games was replaced by attempts at nation-branding, professionalism and commercialism. How one views this development depends, as Huebner suggests, on one’s point of view. As he concludes this study, ‘many businessmen, professional athletes and accompanying “professional” fans and spectators – the very masses Elwood Brown had once hoped to “uplift” – approved of the new ethos’ (277).
I should add that this statement comes with a note, which is the true final word in this fine study. ‘My own more paternalistic judgment as an academic would be that education (and academic research) is more valuable than entertainment – after all, this study’s main purpose is education, while entertainment is only a secondary concern, albeit one which has hopefully not been entirely neglected’ (349). I can assure the author, and prospective readers, that it has not.
Postscript: The book has already been translated into Japanese by Takashima Kō and Tomita Kōsuke (Citation2017).
References
- Guthrie-Shimizu, S. (2012). Transpacific field of dreams: How baseball linked the United States and Japan in peace and war. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
- Guttmann, A., & Thompson, L. (2001). Japanese sports: A history. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
- Havens, T. (2015). Marathon Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
- Huebner, S. (2017). Supōtsu ga tsukutta Ajia: Kinnikuteki kirisutokyō no sekaiteki kakuchō to sōzō sareru kindai Ajia [Pan-Asian sports and the emergence of modern Asia]. Translated by Takashima, K. and Tomita K. Tokyo: Isshiki shuppan.
- Manzenreiter, W. (2014). Sport and body politics in Japan. New York: Routledge.