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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)

stefan.huebner@unibw.de

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.