The first book to focus solely on the Asian Games, this is an analysis of the Oriental rival to the Olympics in terms of its geopolitical, economic, sociological, historical, racial and aesthetic context, looking at its birth, growth and maturation from 1913 up until 2006. Written by a team of international scholars, this is a collection of original research and first-hand material from archives across Asia which addresses a number of issues central to notions of nationalism and Orientalism in sport including: the relationship between the Asian Games and the Olympic Games the challenge the Asian Games present to Western forces such as the IOC and international sports federations politics power structure and struggle in the Asian Games nationalism and cultural identity the relationship between Orientalism, Globalism and the Asian Games commercialisation of the Asian Games the contribution modern sport makes to social development in Asia the future of the Asian Games. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

The first book to focus solely on the Asian Games, this is an analysis of the Oriental rival to the Olympics in terms of its geopolitical, economic, sociological, historical, racial and aesthetic context, looking at its birth, growth and maturation from 1913 up until 2006. Written by a team of international scholars, this is a collection of original research and first-hand material from archives across Asia which addresses a number of issues central to notions of nationalism and Orientalism in sport including: the relationship between the Asian Games and the Olympic Games the challenge the Asian Games present to Western forces such as the IOC and international sports federations politics power structure and struggle in the Asian Games nationalism and cultural identity the relationship between Orientalism, Globalism and the Asian Games commercialisation of the Asian Games the contribution modern sport makes to social development in Asia the future of the Asian Games. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

The global geopolitics of sport is being transformed in and by East Asia. Sport in recent decades has been avidly embraced by East Asian nations, with implications both for their image on the international stage and their domestic national identities. The three post-war East Asian Olympic Games, the ‘glittering’ Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 and the march of Asia into the global sport market illustrate the fact that a new global sports order has emerged. This collection uniquely discerns the ‘tectonic’ shift of global power in the geopolitical, economic, cultural and social dynamics of sport from West to East. It also reveals ‘that the global empire of commerce’ is similarly shifting eastwards. The chapters, written by leading authorities on East Asia, widens the focus, advances the knowledge and sharpens the appreciation of both global sport and regional current transformation in the making and, in doing so, contributes to an understanding of profound changes in global sport. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Olympics played an important role in the politics of the Cold War and was part of the conflicts between the Capitalist Block, the Socialist Block and Third World countries. The Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) is one of the best examples of the politicization of sport and the Olympics in the Cold War era. From the 1980s onward, the Olympics has facilitated communication and cooperation between nations in the post–Cold War era and contributed to the formation of a new world order. In August 2016, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad were held in Rio de Janeiro, making Brazil the first South American country to host the Summer Olympics. This was widely regarded as a new landmark event in the history of the modern Olympic movement. From the GANEFO to Rio, the Olympic Games have witnessed the shifting balance in international politics and world economy. This book aims at understanding the transformation of the Olympics over the past decades and tries to explain how the Olympic movement played its part in world politics, the world economy and international relations against the background of the rise of developing countries. The chapters in this book were published as a special issue in 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.

How do nations come to shape our collective imagination so profoundly? This book argues that the power of national identity and national belonging stems, in part, from the ways in which nationalism is embedded in popular culture. Comprised of chapters covering a wide range of cases from both the Global North and Global South (including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel, Pakistan, and the United States), the text unpacks the connections between nationalism and film, television, music, and other facets of everyday culture. In doing so, it demonstrates that popular culture can help us understand why and how nationhood has become so deeply entrenched in modern society. This book will be of interest to scholars of political science, nationalism, sociology, history, media studies, and cultural studies.