Pan-Asianism, modernity and power asymmetry between Asia and the West serve as the framework of Stefan Hübner's valuable book about sports in Asia in the twentieth century. The author provides a detailed analysis of the history of Asian sporting events with significance far beyond the context of sporting competitions. He further succeeds in elaborating on both Western and Asian perspectives on modernisation in Asia. His work is based on the assumption that the three ideals combined in modern sports — ‘internationalism, egalitarianism, and economic progress’ (p. 6) — have their backgrounds in the concept of muscular Christianity. Although becoming more secularised, these ideals remained key elements throughout regional sporting events in Asia between 1913 and 1974. The different Games discussed demonstrate how the discourse on ‘modernization without Westernization’ (p. 10) influenced the staging of these events, encompassing aspects of nation-building through associated infrastructure projects, national branding, symbolism and the legitimisation of respective governments.
In the first two chapters, Hübner maps out the YMCA's prominent role in founding and supporting the Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG, held every two years between 1913 and 1938, the last being cancelled due to the Sino–Japanese War), and the various pan-Asian aspirations and political conflicts which led to this event being discontinued. One of the FECG's main characteristics was a shift from a dominant rhetoric of Asian inferiority to notions of intra-Asian integration through sportive pan-Asianism, proclaiming ‘Games of the Asians, held for Asians, and organised by Asians’ (p. 99). Yet, the Asianisation of the FECG occurred in the context of national awakening in the struggle against Western domination, thus, limiting its pan-Asian dimension.
While the core countries of the FECG were the Philippines, China and Japan, the single iteration of the Western Asiatic Games in early 1934 was led by India, and in particular Indian Olympic Association member Guru Dutt Sondhi, who played a key role in this event as well as in the post-Second World War Asian Games. Sondhi was the founder of the Asian Games and influenced the event for decades.
After an analysis of the early discontinued sporting events in Asia, Hübner dedicates the following chapters to the foundation of the Asian Games, its Federation (AGF) and the seven events between 1951 and 1974. The First Asian Games in India strived for Asian modernisation without following the ideas of Western civilisation. Furthermore, the organisers stressed the idea of peaceful internationalisation as a reaction to the various wars and independence struggles in the region. The promotion of peaceful internationalism was again of significance for the organisers of the Third Asian Games in Tokyo in 1958, which aimed to counter the discourse of Japanese aggressions in the past.
Hübner provides insights into how the Cold War shaped the Second (Manila, 1954) and Fourth (Jakarta, 1962) Asian Games in contrasting ways. While the organisers of the Philippines event were able to exclude the communist countries and thus link the Games with democracy and the ‘free world’ (p. 126), Indonesia, as the host of the fourth iteration, propagated anti-Western internationalism and prevented the participation of Israel and Taiwan. Under President Sukarno, Indonesia aimed at turning the Asian Games into a beacon of the Non-Aligned Movement, challenging both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the AGF. After Indonesia was expelled from the IOC and had founded the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) as a counter-event to the Olympics, the Fifth Asian Games (Bangkok, 1966) served political purposes yet again. Thailand, as a close ally of the United States, hosted the event and returned to the non-communist interpretation of the region. Similar to the previous events, in 1966, as well as 1970, the Games in Thailand were influenced by the government's modernisation and development plans. Unique to Thailand, however, was the impact on the Games of the personality cult of the king and the revival of the Buddhist monarchy (p. 227).
In 1974, for the first time, the Asian Games took place in a West Asian country (Iran). This is not the only reason why Hübner perceives this event as a turning point for the AGF. Rather, the inclusion of the Arab countries along with the People's Republic of China and North Korea, and the exclusion of Taiwan (and later, Israel) changed the regional scope significantly. Furthermore, the (Western) ideals of amateur sports became increasingly hollow, being replaced by nation-building initiatives and demonstrations of national superiority (p. 259). Hübner suggests further changes in the AGF (and the IOC) with regard to the growing professionalism and commercialism of sports, thus foreshadowing current issues in international sporting events.
Pan-Asian sports and the emergence of modern Asia presents a salient intersection between Asian Studies, sports studies and world history. It not only underlines the significance of sports in the context of decolonisation, 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. In addition, Hübner's book arouses the reader's curiosity regarding the Asian Games after 1974, and the further developments of the staging of the event with regard to ideas of Asian unity, and the relations between Asian nations as well as between Asia and the West.
