Linking sport to the emergence and growth of modern Asian society this collection of essays offers a lucid, original and highly readable history of politics, culture and sport in the world's most populous region.

Prologue - Asian sport - from the recent past, J.A. Mangan; imperial origins -Christian manliness, moral imperatives and pre-Sri Lankan playing fields -beginnings, J.A. Mangan; imperial origins - Christian manliness, moral imperatives and pre-Sri Lankan playing fields - consolidation, J.A. Mangan; celestials in touch -sport and the Chinese in colonial Singapore, N.G. Aplin and Quek Jon Jong; "sportsmanship" - English inspiration and Japanese response - F.W. Strange and Chiyosaburo Takeda, Ikuo Abe and J.A. Mangan; "healthy bodies, healthy minds -sport and society in colonial Malaya, Janice N. Brownfoot; cricket in colonial India -the Bombay pentangular, 1892-1946, Boria Majumdar; sport in China - conflict between tradition and modernity, 1840s to 1930s, Fan Hong and Tan Hua; ideology, politics, power - Korean sport - transformation, 1945-92, Ha Nam-Gil and J.A. Mangan; shackling the lion - sport and modern Singapore, Peter A. Horton; the juggernaut of globalization - sport and modernization in Iran, H.E. Chehabi; "Pancasila" - sport and the building of Indonesia - ambitions and obstacles, Iain Adams; communist China - sport, politics and diplomacy, Fan Hong and Xiong Xiaozheng; the road to modernization - sport in Taiwan, Trevor Slack et al; sport in India - policies, practices and problems, Packianathan Chelladurai et al; from Iran to all of Asia - the origin and diffusion of polo, H.E. Chehabi and Allen Guttman; epilogue - into the future - Asian sport and globalization, Fan Hong.