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DRAFT: NO PERMISSION TO QUOTE
Conference: “Newspapers and Transculturality: New Approaches to Working with Historical Newspapers” (Heidelberg)
The Far Eastern Championship Games (1913-1934) in Newspapers: The
Transnational Communication of ‘Modernization’ through Sport
Stefan Hübner, M.A. Research Associate / Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Bundeswehr University Munich Historical Institute
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39 85579 Munich-Neubiberg (Germany)
DRAFT: NO PERMISSION TO QUOTE
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In my PhD-thesis – ‘Building Asian Nations through Sports Events (1913-1974). The
Far Eastern Championship Games, the Western Asiatic Games and the Early Asian Games’ –
I used, based on the example of three regional sports events, new methodological approaches
such as global history and the ‘multiple modernities’ to analyze entangled transfers of norms
and values between Asia and the ‘West’. The spreading of ‘modern’ mega events such as
world expositions and sports events since the late nineteenth century is a global phenomenon,
which was initially caused by the rise of the ‘West’ and was characterized by power
asymmetries due to colonialism, racism, and ‘Orientalism’. I was interested in gaining new
insights into ‘Western’ and Asian perspectives on ‘modernization’, ‘civilization’, and feelings
of regional and national ‘belonging’, as well as on the public orchestration of shifting power
relations within Asia and between Asia and the ‘West’.
In this presentation, however, I limit myself to an overview of the media coverage of
the Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG; 1913-1934). I primarily deal with cartoons and
photos depicted in newspapers published in East Asian countries, particularly in the
Philippines. American newspapers and news magazines also covered the Games, but very
often created a much more ‘Orientalist’ image of East Asians being in need of ‘Western’
tutelage. My main focus lies on four topics that served to communicate visions of
‘modernization’ to imagined national and supra-national communities (in the sense of
Benedict Anderson) of newspaper readers: East Asian capability for sportive self-government,
the amateur sports ideals of egalitarianism and internationalism, symbolic communication
through trophies, and the emergence of ‘modern’ women. Quite obviously, not every single
cartoon or photo on the Games can be discussed here (there are hundreds), meaning that each
time several images I consider useful for illustration purposes were selected.
The FECG were founded by the American branch of the Young Men’s Christian
Association (YMCA) in Manila in 1913 to encourage a large-scale transfer of white American
Protestant norms and values to East Asia. Due to the growing urbanization and
industrialization that occurred following the American Civil War (1861-1865), American
religious reformers increasingly supported amateur sport as a means to overcome a perceived
‘degeneration’ and ‘corruption’ of Americans. During the ‘Progressive Era’ (1890s-1920s),
big cities were increasingly seen as hotbeds of vices and crime, whereas sports were regarded
as a ‘clean’ leisure practice. Moreover, office work instead of more traditional hard physical
labor on farms would lead to sickness, neurasthenia, and other physical and mental illnesses
which were to be combated through physical exercise. Finally, amateur sports norms and
values such as fair play (honesty), competition, belief in personal effort as the way to success
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(instead of believing in luck or fate, as in the case of gambling), practical efficiency (choosing
competent athletes for the team independent of skin color or social background instead of
recruiting relatives), equality (non-discrimination), team spirit (the ability to cooperate with
others), obedience of duly constituted authority (the ability to accept rules and orders), and
especially self-control (the ability to lose without turning violent) were – if properly enforced
by referees and by not paying athletes money to win – considered as useful for citizenship
training, assimilation of immigrants, and for promoting ideals such as Christian egalitarianism,
Christian internationalism, and a ‘Protestant Work Ethic’.
The main justification for the American decision to conquer the Philippines following
the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War (1898) had been the Filipinos’ alleged
backwardness. Congressional debates, but also public discourse as reflected by newspapers,
presented racial images of Filipinos as child-minded savages, American natives, or ‘negroes’,
alongside Christian rhetoric. Uncle Sam was often displayed as a fatherly figure or as a
teacher charged with finding a way in which to deal with the small Filipinos. The pro-
imperialists suggested it was a duty to ‘elevate’ the Filipinos to superior white Protestant
American standards and save them from Spanish oppression or from the outbreak of chaos
due to their inability for self-government. Based on ideas like American Exceptionalism,
Manifest Destiny, and the frontier, the United States would have to accept the ‘White Man’s
Burden’ (Rudyard Kipling) of ‘benevolent imperialism’. Moreover, as Theodore Roosevelt
argued in his ‘Strenuous Life’ speech in April 1899, the ‘young and virile’ United States
would have to accept its new role in international affairs. Isolationism would mean a slow
decay, with the United States eventually becoming a ‘China of the Western hemisphere’.
American anti-imperialists rejected the idea of annexing the Philippines as contradicting the
founding principles of the United States, but even their image of the Filipinos did not
significantly differ from the pro-imperialists.
Early American colonial administrations used a similar vocabulary as the pro-
imperialists. Historian Paul Kramer has recently noted that they systematically used keywords
like ‘progress’, ‘development’, ‘capacity’, and ‘possibility’ in order to create a discourse of
racial inclusiveness to encourage Filipino elites to collaborate, but also to control them. The
Filipinos were thus described as being able to learn self-government, but currently not yet
ready for it, creating a justification for colonialist ‘training’. The images evoked during the
American debate on annexation were supplemented by additional perceptions such as
Christian Filipino elites being dishonest and immoral. The centuries-old ‘Black Legend’ of
corrupt Spanish colonial practices promoting exploitation and feudalism experienced a
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revival and was presented alongside the Filipinos’ supposed racial deficits as having had a
disastrous influence on Christian Filipino elites. The broad masses, on the other hand, would
remain ignorant, passive, superstitious, and lazy. Most of the non-Christians would still be
savages and in need of even more American guidance. One of the most signal images was
that of an Igorot headhunter depicted in 1908 in the Washington Post, who, according to Dean
C. Worcester, an American zoologist and Secretary of the Interior for the Philippine
Commission until 1913, had been turned into a ‘civilized’-looking constabulary sergeant
within two years (1901-1903).
‘The Evolution of a Constabulary Sergeant from an Igorot Headhunter’ (Washington Post, 1908)
Linked with this ‘American Civilizing Mission’, the American YMCA began to
engage in missionary and education activities in East Asia. In 1910, Elwood Stanley Brown
went to Manila as the YMCA’s physical education director. He started to collaborate with the
American colonial administration in various ways. For example, during the annual Manila
Carnival, whose athletic director he became in 1911, he organized an amateur championship
for school teams and one open to everybody independent of ethnicity or skin color. He
thereby attempted to overcome racial segregation in the American colony. At the same time
he intended to serve Filipinos in American-style nation building by popularizing ‘civilized’
behavior based on spreading white American Protestant norms and values through school
sport by designing a program for the newly established public school system.
It did not take long for other East Asian peoples such as the Chinese and the Japanese
to be added to the target group. These in particular belonged to those nations Brown and his
colleagues perceived as needing American guidance due to their lack of American
civilization. To come into contact with Asian politicians and government officials and to
promote ‘Western’ amateur sports, Brown decided to found a regional sports event – the
FECG – and used the YMCA’s networks in the Philippines, China, and Japan to recruit teams
of athletes to participate in the first event (Manila 1913). His project resulted in a spectacular
success and the creation of the biggest regional sports event until 1934, until 1927 taking
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place biannually in one of the three countries. On the second day of the First FECG, the
Philippines Free Press, written in both English and Spanish, and thus addressing both the
American and Filipino elites, published an image of ‘The New Olympian’. Looking very
similar to a white American athlete apart from the shape of his eyes, this image symbolized
the celebrated American ideal of strong, proud, and totally Americanized Filipinos, Japanese,
and Chinese, who had willingly embraced amateur sports and the corresponding norms and
values to become ‘civilized’. As one might expect, some journals, particularly American
ones, dramatized ‘civilizing successes’ even further by showing photos of Igorot and other
head hunters who had been turned not into constabulary sergeants, but athletes.
‘The New Olympian’ (Philippines Free Press, 1913)
Another cartoon published by the Philippines Free Press upon the opening of the
Fourth FECG (Manila 1919) depicted the means necessary for realizing this American ideal
of ‘uplifting’ East Asians. A large, grown-up Uncle Sam (supported by Filipinas as an Asian
substitute allegory for Columbia) was shown as teaching sports values to a Filipino, Japanese,
and Chinese athlete, all of which were depicted as children. Although many athletes really
were school boys or young students (and the officials Americans), the civilizational and
power asymmetry displayed in the cartoon is obvious.
‘The Olympiad.’ (Philippines Free Press, 1919)
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Since anti-colonial nationalism strongly increased during and after the First World
War (in the case of the Philippines, this process was also supported by the Jones Law of 1916,
bringing about a ‘Filipinization process’ to prepare Filipinos for self-government), during the
1920s power relations between Americans and Asians started to change. In 1923/24, Chinese
officials managed to reduce American YMCA officials to the role of advisors, while in the
Philippines increasing numbers of Filipinos moved into second or third-tier offices such as
referees (in 1927 they also gained control over many first-tier offices such as National
Physical Director of the Philippines or Secretary of the Games Committee). In Japan,
American YMCA officials from the beginning needed to act as gray eminences, but their
influence also continuously decreased in the 1920s. Another cartoon depicted in the
Philippines Free Press on the opening day of the Seventh FECG (Manila 1925) illustrates
these changes. The three Asian athletes this time are shown as grown-ups, not as children
anymore. Moreover, Uncle Sam has vanished both as a teacher of Asian ‘children’ and as a
representative of the American organizers of the Games. Instead, a Filipino referee in a local
dress took his place, illustrating the ‘Asiatization process’ the Games experienced (although
the presence of the Star-Spangled Banner still serves as a reminder of American sovereignty
over the Philippines, although the colony nevertheless is also represented by its ‘own’ flag)
and, not being taller than the athletes, the formal equality of all nations involved in the Games.
‘They’re off!’ (Philippines Free Press, 1925)
When the Tenth FECG took place in Manila in 1934, all three countries had gained
complete sportive self-government (except that in the Philippines the American governor-
general as the equivalent to a head of state still played a prominent role in the ceremonies).
The Japanese even had hosted the Ninth FECG (Tokyo 1930) in such a competent way that
the mayor of Tokyo approached the leading Japanese sports officials regarding bringing the
most important international sports event, the Olympic Games, which until then had been held
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only in European and North American cities, to Japan. Moreover, during the Los Angeles
Olympics in 1932, the Japanese team demonstrated that it had, as the first ‘non-Western’ team
ever, risen to ‘Olympic’ standards. Having won nine gold medals was another breakthrough
for convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of the soundness of the Japanese
application. In 1936, Tokyo was awarded the 1940 Olympic Games and thereby was accepted
into an until then exclusively white circle of nations deemed capable and sufficiently
experienced to host an Olympic Games event (which, due to the protracted Second Sino-
Japanese War beginning in 1937, eventually was renounced by the Japanese). During the
Tenth FECG the topic of Asians struggling for sportive self-government thus was of no
importance anymore. Instead, The Philippines Herald returned to an image featuring Asia (the
‘Orient’) and the ‘West’ (the ‘Occident’), but in contrast to the cartoon displayed in the
Philippines Free Press in 1919, depicted both as (almost) equal to each other. The reason was
the Japanese application for the Olympic Games, which are symbolized by Zeus as the patron
of the (ancient) Olympic Games. An Asian athlete (a Japanese one, but representing all Asian
athletes), who seems as if he still needs to make another, final step to be (in terms of size) an
equal to the ‘Western’ athlete, offers the ‘Western’ athlete a laurel wreath (a typical Olympic
symbol), which is welcomed by him. Accepting the Japanese application thus would mean
equality. At the same time the cartoon certainly reminds the viewer that the modern Olympic
Games (like the ancient ones) originated in the ‘West’. However, the IOC’s choice of Zeus
and other elements of Grecian culture, which had no direct connection to a still existent
religion even in the ‘West’, for promoting the modern Olympic Games had already been a de
facto secular compromise. As the eventually successful Japanese application for the Olympic
Games demonstrated, ‘Olympism’ had a higher integration potential than, for example, the
YMCA’s white American Protestant amateur sports ideology (‘muscular Christianity’ and
‘body as temple’ theology, based on the assumption that Jesus had hardened his body through
his nomadic life as a preacher in the Holy Land), which was rejected particularly in Japan.
‘The Orient’s Call to the Occident’ (The Philippines Herald, 1934)
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As mentioned above, the ideals of Christian egalitarianism and Christian
internationalism had been of central importance for the American YMCA’s sportive
‘Civilizing Mission’. The status of the two ideals did not change when Asians gained control
over the Games (some of them being YMCA members) in the 1920s, although the Christian
dimension (including the aim of conversion) lost in importance. The 1920s and 1930s
nevertheless were characterized by almost permanent political tensions between the Japanese
government and the government(s) of (between 1916 and 1928 completely fragmented) China
due to the Shandong Problem (1919-1922; the return of sovereignty over Shandong province
to China), the May Fourth Movement (1919; large-scale demonstrations caused by the
Shandong Problem), the return of sovereignty over the Kwantung Leased Territory to China
(1923; the Japanese were unwilling to retrocede it), the Northern Expedition (1926-1928; a
successful military campaign of the Kuomintang – the Chinese Nationalist Party – situated in
the southern part of China to reunify China), and Japan’s conquest of Manchuria as well as
the founding of Manchukuo as a puppet state (1931/32; Chinese nationalists who considered
Manchuria a part of China were outraged). Chinese and Japanese views of Filipinos as
‘backward’ or even as ‘savages’, who since centuries were unable to overcome colonialism,
further complicated international cooperation, not to mention ‘racial’ tensions between Asians
and Americans or the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1934, tensions between Japanese and
Chinese sports officials were particularly strong since the Japanese had, before the Games
commenced, unsuccessfully attempted to get Chinese permission for Manchukuo to join the
FECG. Most members of the Japanese team nevertheless decided to go to Manila instead of
boycotting the Games, meaning that the Tenth FECG, which for the first time were attended
by a team from the Dutch East Indies, took place without disturbances. Therefore, when the
FECG were held for the fourth time in the Philippines, a variety of Philippine newspapers,
which became ‘big business’ during the 1920s and 1930s since more than two and a half
decades of English-language instructions at public schools meant that comparatively large
parts of the population had become legible, reported on the tensions. Several cartoons showed
the FECG as a public event promoting the spirit of peaceful competition of athletes and
cooperation among officials from different Asian countries, while also encouraging the ideals
of internationalism and egalitarianism among the populations of the participating countries. A
cartoon printed in The Tribune, for example, features an athlete, symbolizing the FECG,
throwing a spear, representing the ‘spirit of friendly rivalry’, at an ogre-like being standing for
‘prejudices’ between the four countries. The meaning that personal contacts between the
athletes, but also the decision of ‘common people’ to live according to the amateur ideals of
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internationalism and egalitarianism, would reduce tensions due to political problems and
racism should be obvious.
‘He Must Win this Contest.’ (The Tribune, 1934)
Another cartoon printed in the same journal shows four athletes, representing the four
participating countries, peacefully standing together and watching the moon. While the moon,
representing ‘understanding’, is what they are fascinated by, they leave the shadowy abyss of
‘suspicion’ behind them. The egalitarian and internationalist message again should be obvious.
‘Road to Understanding.’ (The Tribune, 1934)
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A third cartoon displayed in the Philippines Herald shows four athletes carrying the
flags of their respective homelands. The flags represent primarily the idea of nation-states,
which was especially important since the Filipino athlete carried only what is today the
National Flag of the Philippine Islands. No Star-Spangled Banner was added, most likely
since less then two month before the Games commenced the Tydings–McDuffie Act had
promised the Philippines their independence after a transition period of ten years. As a
consequence, the Javanese athlete was the only one carrying the flag of its colonizer (the Flag
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands). Nationalism nevertheless was not shown as leading to
tensions, but as a condition for inter-nationalism and egalitarianism, represented by all four
athletes peacefully standing next to each other and having the same size. Moreover, Philippine
hospitality to all athletes was shown by Filipinas watching over and protecting them.
‘Festival of Goodwill.’ (Philippines Herald, 1934)
In contrast, the Philippines Free Press decided for a significantly less idealistic
cartoon. Five persons, a Chinese, a Japanese, a Filipino, a Javanese, and an Indo-Chinese
(French Indo-China had joined the FECG, but had not sent a delegation to the 1934 Games)
are depicted watching a puppet theatre featuring four puppets, who looking like athletes and
thus represent the delegations participating in the FECG. However, the puppet master, who is
almost invisible to the spectators, is equated with ‘international politics’. The cartoon
therefore hints at the strong influence the founding of Manchukuo and the following Japanese
attempt to gain permission for it to join the FECG had on the Games. While the Chinese
officials were completely unwilling to indirectly acknowledging Manchukuo’s existence, the
Filipino officials, among them Manuel L. Quezon (in 1935 becoming President of the
Philippine Commonwealth) and Jorge B. Vargas (in 1935 becoming Quezon’s secretary and
thus a minister) had to keep in mind that the decision regarding Manchukuo might also have a
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long-term impact on relations between the eventually independent Philippines and Japan.
Internationalism and egalitarianism, represented by the puppets all having the same size and
showing peaceful rivalry, thus could end at any time in case ‘international politics’ decided
for it. A ‘civilizing’ impact of the FECG on international relations in East Asia, even a small
one, was thus denied and international diplomacy considered to predominate everything,
including the activities of NGOs such as the Far Eastern Athletic Association. Quite
obviously, the transnational dimension of the Games, for example their impact on individual
East Asians, is insufficiently addressed by the cartoon. In terms of international relations the
interpretation nevertheless was true, since very often governments only supported
international sport as long as political entities whose existence was not recognized were not
added to the list of countries to be treated as an equal. The question of whether or not to
include Manchukuo, which after the end of the Tenth FECG made Japanese and Filipino
delegates dissolve the FECG and found new games that excluded China and included
Manchukuo, thus is not genuinely different from the ‘two Chinas problem’ in the Olympic
Games that emerged after the Chinese Civil War, when the People’s Republic of China was
unwilling to recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) and vice versa.
‘Politics Pulls the Strings.’ (Philippines Free Press, 1934)
Seen from the perspective of trophy-donation by political elites, the Second FECG
(Shanghai, May 1915) received strong approval from the Chinese side. Some Chinese elites,
however, decided against ‘Western’ style silver cups and in favor of what they defined as
Chinese authenticity. For example, Chinese President Yuan Shikai donated a replica of the
‘Ten Widows’ Arches’, a paifang (a memorial archway gate) located in Beijing, for the
decathlon. According to an interview with Elwood Brown from 1919, Yuan’s idea had been
that each of the ten arches stood for one discipline of the decathlon. On the other hand, Brown
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conceded that the ten widows were the widows of a former Chinese emperor. What he did not
mention, since it did not fit well into American style sportive ‘modernization’, though it must
certainly have come to his mind, was that the trophy therefore also stood for the Chinese
Empire, not for the new Chinese Republic founded in 1912. After all, President Yuan had
invested much energy into becoming a new Chinese Emperor, which he finally archived in
late 1915, even if only for a short period of time. Donating the trophy thus can be interpreted
as an approach to communicate his own vision of China’s future, including his role in it, to
both a Chinese and a foreign audience. However, while his plans to reinstitute the monarchy
received extremely bad political and public feedback, his impressive trophy caught only
limited media attention. Very likely only due to his death in 1916 (and since the FECG
continuously gained in prominence) did the trophy attract more attention, although its
symbolic meaning (or one of its two meanings) by then had become irrelevant. In the late
1910s and early 1920s it was depicted, often together with its winner, in a variety of
newspapers and magazines (even American ones such as The World’s Work, propagating an
American ‘Civilizing Mission’), before it was permanently awarded to the Philippines for
having won the decathlon championship at three Games (1915, 1921, 1923).
‘Ten Widows’ Arches’ (The World’s Work, 1918)
Many other photos of trophies donated by American, Filipino, Chinese, and, since
1923 (after the Washington Treaty System had led to a more internationalist Japanese foreign
policy, which also led to broader acceptance of the FECG), Japanese elites including the
Emperor could be discussed. These showed a variety of ways how sportive ‘modernization’
was connected to local and non-local traditions, having ‘Western’, Olympic, pan-Asian, or
national shapes. However, I limit myself to photos of another Chinese trophy, which was
donated by Chiang Kai-shek in 1930, after the Kuomintang had won the Northern Expedition
and Chiang had become president, ending the Warlord Era since 1916. The trophy underlined
the Kuomintang’s further support of the FECG. More important was that it was, like President
Yuan’s trophy for the 1915 FECG, another symbol of Chinese identity and authenticity. In
contrast to Yuan’s replica of a building in Beijing associated with the Chinese Empire, Chiang
presented a trophy communicating an entirely different message, that of ‘national revolution’.
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It was modeled on the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, an impressive and famous building
destroyed in 1856 during the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. The trophy
therefore stood for the Kuomintang’s new capital of China, Nanjing, which was to experience
a large-scale capital building program to represent a ‘new China’, instead of the Qing
dynasty’s and the warlords’ capital, Beijing. Again, donating the trophy needs to be seen not
only in terms of supporting the sportive ‘modernization’ of China and East Asia, but also for
communicating Chiang’s and the Kuomintang’s political ideology of ‘national revolution’.
‘Porcelain Tower of Nanjing.’ (Japan Advertiser, 1930)
Finally, I would like to come to the depiction of ‘modern’ (at least middle and upper
class) women. Images showing ‘modern’ male athletes, beginning with the image of ‘The
New Olympian’, have already been shown en masse, after all. Photos of ‘modern’
sportswomen are interesting, since many of these women wanted to be considered a relevant
part of society and be more equally treated. Moreover, their bodies were shaped by a new
ideal of beauty at least partially based on physical efficiency. The introduction of women’s
events since 1923, even if their victories did not count towards the general championship of
the FECG, thereby accompanied other ‘progressive’ women’s movements such as that for
voting rights, which were expressions of the so-called ‘Taishō Democracy’ in Japan, the
‘nationalist awakening’ in China, and the social transformation in the Philippines. Women
taking up sports meant that their public appearance, particularly dress codes, changed. Female
swimmers, for example, displayed arms and legs (not yet the stomach) in front of other people,
which previously would have caused shame. When swimming was introduced in 1934 as a
female competition, many photos featuring female athletes in swimsuits were displayed in
Philippine newspapers, further spreading that new image.
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‘P.I. Girl Swimmers.’ (Manila Daily Bulletin, 1934)
However, such photos very likely were not only added to satisfy the growing consumption of
sports news by readers of both genders, but also due to an assumed interest of male readers in
‘semi-nude’ women. The following photo makes the emergence of the new beauty ideal and
the sex appeal of ‘modern’ Asian sportswomen (or girls) even more obvious. One of the
members of the Chinese swimming team had been elected ‘Miss China’ in 1931.
‘Miss China Thinks Oriental Women Not Behind Occidental Girls in Sports, Other Things.’ (Philippines
Herald, 1934)
Due to the close connection of the Philippines to the United States, since the first FECG
several big American newspapers also provided basic information on the Games, which they
obtained via their branch offices or through news agencies such as the Associated Press. For
example, an image of female Chinese swimmers (one of them coming from Hong Kong,
illustrating the integration of the diaspora into the team) made it into the New York Times.
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‘Swimming Stars on Chinese Team.’ (New York Times, 1934)
In contrast, the tennis dresses of Filipino women participating in the Tenth FECG still look
quite impractical seen from the perspective of today, but like the swimming suits (or sports
uniforms in the case of track and field athletes) also illustrate a departure from traditional
(middle and upper class) kimono and Spanish-inspired Baro’t Saya, often cut in a way that did
not allow fast movements, or Chinese bound feet, which were even more hindering for
leading a ‘productive’ life.
‘P.I. Women Net Stars.’ (Manila Daily Bulletin, 1934) Chinese Footbinding (wikipedia\Lotosfuß)
Taken all together, the spreading of amateur sports in the 1910s and 1920s, which was
strongly promoted by the FECG, had an important impact on the ‘modernization’ of East
Asian societies. Since only a limited number of people could view the Games in the stadium
(though during the later events 200,000-500,000 tickets were sold), newspaper coverage of
the Games was of high importance, affecting growing numbers of Asians becoming legible
(although radio broadcasting and the cinema obviously were also of importance). A variety of
cartoons dealt with the topic of Asians gaining sportive self-government, showing the process
following the First World War of the American founders of the Games being substituted by
Asian officials. At the same time cartoons and photos showed male amateur athletes, who
represented the results of the YMCA’s ‘Civilizing Mission’ of teaching East Asians the ideals
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of internationalism (which included the idea of creating nation-states), egalitarianism, and
economically progressive thinking (including better health). Particularly the first two amateur
sports ideals were featured prominently in 1934 to balance against the political tensions
between Japan and China concerning the status of Manchukuo, which strongly influenced the
FECG. As the photos of the Chinese trophies underline, the large-scale transfer of white
American Protestant norms and values, including the accompanying ideals, to East Asia
cannot be covered without focusing on the reactions of East Asian elites. ‘Western’ amateur
sports underwent an appropriation process, being considered useful for ‘modernizing’ East
Asian societies (and having increasing popular appeal), but were integrated into local cultural
traditions to give the cultural import authenticity (essential to reduce popular resistance) and
to convince people that a ‘great past’ could be restored through successful ‘modernization’.
Moreover, increasing numbers of photos showing female athletes served to promote the
‘liberation’ and emancipation of women, who were not inhibited by traditional dress codes or
cultural traditions anymore. Changing ideals of (physical) beauty further influenced the image
of ‘modern’ women, while the sex appeal of some of the athletes certainly was also utilized
by newspaper companies to sell more copies.