This is the first book in English that adopts a critical socio-historical perspective to examine the important themes and challenges of Asian indigenous culture and sport. Written by leading sport historians and scholars, the chapters in the book contain real-life case studies and comparative studies in Asian sport. The book examines the history, contemporary governance and management, gender, and ethnic issues embedded in folk sports and physical culture, and the challenges faced by Asian indigenous sports and their evolution. Based on cutting-edge research from China, Japan, Korea, Israel and beyond, this book will be a valuable addition to any course in sport history, sport culture, sport development and sport sociology. It will stimulate those who are seeking ways to promote and develop indigenous sports, from intangible cultural heritage protection to global sport partnership. It will also be of interest to students, researchers, and practitioners, who wish to understand the changing face of Asian society and Asian indigenous sport. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This book examines the history, contemporary governance and management, gender, and ethnic issues embedded in folk sports and physical culture, and the challenges faced by Asian indigenous sports and their evolution.

This is the first book in English that adopts a critical socio-historical perspective to examine the important themes and challenges of Asian indigenous culture and sport. Written by leading sport historians and scholars, the chapters in the book contain real-life case studies and comparative studies in Asian sport. The book examines the history, contemporary governance and management, gender, and ethnic issues embedded in folk sports and physical culture, and the challenges faced by Asian indigenous sports and their evolution. Based on cutting-edge research from China, Japan, Korea, Israel and beyond, this book will be a valuable addition to any course in sport history, sport culture, sport development and sport sociology. It will stimulate those who are seeking ways to promote and develop indigenous sports, from intangible cultural heritage protection to global sport partnership. It will also be of interest to students, researchers, and practitioners, who wish to understand the changing face of Asian society and Asian indigenous sport. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

A detailed study of sports' arrival, spread and advance in colonial and post-colonial South Asia. A selection of articles addresses critical issues of nationalism, communalism, commercialism and gender through the lens of sport. This book makes the point that the social histories of South Asian sport cannot be understood by simply looking at the history of the game in one province or region. Furthermore, it demonstrates that it would be wrong to understand sport in terms of the exigencies of the colonial state. Drawing inspiration from C.L.R. James' well-known epigram, 'What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?' the findings suggest that South Asian sport makes sense only when it is placed within the broader colonial and post-colonial context. The book demonstrates that sport not only influences politics and vice versa, but that the two are inseparable. Sport is not only political, it is politics, intrigue, culture and art. To deny this is to denigrate the position of sport in modern South Asian society. This volume was previously published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This volume gathers work from a wide range of disciplines - anthropology, cultural studies, geography, history, law, sociology, and post-colonial studies - to explore the paradoxical processes of emulation, resistance and transformation that are at work in the global diffusion and development of "sport" and body cultures.

This is the first book to focus on indigenous, traditional, and folk sports and sporting cultures. It examines the significance of sporting cultures that have survived the emergence and diffusion of western sports and have carved out a unique position not only in spite of modernity but also in response to it. Presenting case studies from around the world, including from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, this book draws on multidisciplinary work from sociology, anthropology, history, cultural studies, and political science, exploring key themes in the social sciences including nationalism, identity, decolonisation, and gender. From Turkish oil wrestling, kabaddi in South Asia, Iroquois lacrosse, to wushu and sumo in East Asia and various European traditional sports, these sporting practices continue to capture the indigenous imagination on the margins of the western hegemonic sport complex. Situated in the fissures between the local, the national, and the global; between the archaic and the modern; and between ritual and record, they inhabit a liminal space of transformation as they assume new cultural and political meanings, offering important perspectives on the complexities and contradictions of modernity. The volume’s decolonial perspective lies in its promotion of indigenous and subaltern worldviews through their traditional movement cultures on the margins of the western hegemonic sport complex. This is a fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, nationalism, Indigenous studies, heritage and folklore studies, anthropology, social and cultural history, or globalisation.