This project is an intellectual history about the nation and the meaning of “Asia” in the twentieth century, asking why and how the early Asian Games and their predecessors turned into sites of contestation of the nation and of visions of “Asia”.

The project analyzes the history of regional sporting events between 1913-1974, which 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. The countries addressed are Japan, China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Iran.

PI: Stefan Huebner