Joseph Maguire is Professor of Sociology of Sport at Loughborough University.

Birgit Krawietz is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin.

Katrin Bromber is a researcher at the Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO).

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.

Introduction: From Asian Sports to Sport in Asia Katrin Bromber, Birgit Krawietz and Joseph Maguire 1. Anthropological Perspectives on Sport and Culture: Against Sports as the Essence of Western Modernity Ingrid Kummels 2. Civilising Bodies: Somatic Engineering in China Denise Gimpel 3. Sport in Japan in the Early 21st Century: An Interpretation Lee Thompson 4. The Memory of Colonialism and Imagined Unification: Two Distinctive Natures of South Korean Sporting Nationalism in the 21st Century Jung Woo Lee and Joseph Maguire 5. Representing True Laos in Post-Colonial Southeast Asia: Regional Dynamics in the Globalization of Sport Simon Creak 6. The Debate on 'Revival' and the Physical Culture Movement in Western India (1900-1950) Namrata R. Ganneri 7. Martial Arts Iranian Style: Zurkhane Heavy Athletics and Wrestling Contested Birgit Krawietz 8. The Development of Mountaineering in Republican Turkey Funda Akcan and Nefise Bulgu 9. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain as a Modern Sport Hub Katrin Bromber and Birgit Krawietz