Issue 9
September 2020

ASIA

Two Sides of the Medals– Sports and Politics in Asia

This edition of perspectives Asia is published jointly by the offices of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Asia

Beijing

NeW Delhi
Hong kONGYANGON

BangkokPhnom Penh

Heinrich Böll Stiftung
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overseas offices, we promote green ideas and projects in Germany, as well as in morethan 60 countries worldwide. Our work in Asia concentrates on promoting civil society,democratic structures, social participation for all women and men, and global justice.
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All rights reserved to Heinrich Böll StiftungContents

2

Editorial

4

The Tokyo Olympics: East Asian Sporting Mega-events Revisited
Brian Bridges

7		The Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo Olympcs
Koide Hiroaki

11
Asia at the Olympics
		 Ashish Khandalikar
15
From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China
		 An Interview with Ding Yiyin
20
Sport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals, It’s the ‘We’ Feeling
		 Johanna Son
24
We are the Champions
		 Photographs by Pho Thar
30
Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Games		 Bonn Juego
35
Coming apart at the Seams: Why Women Workers in the Cambodian Garment Industry Need		a Sporting Chance at Equality
		 Rachana Bunn
40
From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi Recaptured the Public Imagination
		 Shripoorna Purohit
44
Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams
		 An Interview with Zainab Hussaini
49
Shaping up Sport for all Genders
		 An Interview with Law Siufung

2

Editorial

Editorial

This should have been a summer like noother for Tokyo. After 56 years, the Gamesof the XXXII Olympiad and the Paralympic
Games should have returned to the city tobolster former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s
grand project to revitalize Japan. Like in
1964 – when Tokyo, as the first Asian city tohost the Olympics, sought to demonstrate
to the world that it had emerged from thepost-war period and transformed into astrong, liberal democracy – the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics were meant to show the nationand the world that ‘Japan is back’ and thatthe 2011 Fukushima triple catastrophe wasa thing of the past.
But the corona pandemic struck theworld. Although Mr. Abe stubbornly clungto his plans and pretended for weeks thateverything would go on as ‘normal,’ theInternational Olympic Committee on 24
March announced the postponement of
the Games until summer 2021. Now Tokyo
has to wait another year to become the first
Asian city to host the summer Olympics
twice.
And it has set a new record, as the first
Olympic host to be plagued by postponements twice.
In fact, large sporting events are often
entangled with politics and hidden interests. In his 2009 book, ‘Beyond the Final
Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia’, Victor
Cha argues that sports can impact diplomacy, serve as a prism to project a country‘svision, and facilitate change within a country. This seems especially plausible in Asia,
where in the early 1970s small ping-pongballs helped to end the Cold War between
China and the United States; in 1988 theSeoul Olympics were a catalyst for South
Korea’s surprising transformation into a

democracy; and in 2018 Pakistan’s greatest
cricketer, Imran Khan, became Prime Minister. Fittingly, former Indonesian President
Sukarno – after setting up the Games of the
New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) in 1963 asa counter to the Olympics, and having his
country banned from the Olympics the following year – declared: ‘[N]ow let’s frankly
say, sports have something to do with politics.’
This issue of Perspectives Asia examinessuch intersections of sports and politics. We
look at how, through sports, identities areshaped, myths and heroes are born, andunconventional truths are buried. Brian
Bridges gives a concise analysis of the political currents behind the various summer
and winter Olympics held in China, Japanand South Korea. Koide Hiroaki, an activist
in Japan’s anti-nuclear movement and former nuclear engineer, points out the Japanese government’s mismanagement of the
Fukushima disaster and its aftermath, andquestions the strategy of using the Tokyo
Olympics to divert attention from the ongoing consequences of the nuclear meltdown.
Ashish Khandalikar highlights somefascinating statistics about the Olympics
from a distinctly Asian perspective. Whowould have known, for example, that thefirst Olympic gold medal won by an Asianwas received by Tejbir Bura from Nepal at
the first Winter Olympics in 1924 in Chamonix, France, where the 1922 British Mount
Everest expedition was recognized for its(unsuccessful, and for seven Indian porters tragically fatal) attempt to conquer theworld’s highest peak?
Extreme sports expert Ding Yiyin gives
an account of how skateboarding, BMX racing and other previously subculture sports

Editorial

have found their way into China and areenriching the country’s sporting horizons.
Zainab Hussaini explains how skateboarding is helping to build trust among young
children, often girls, from different ends ofthe social divide in Afghanistan, many ofwhom bear the scars of war-time trauma.
Joanna Son explores how sports canhelp to build a shared identity across nationalities. The ASEAN nations’ Southeast AsianGames, which officially include indigenous
martial arts beloved throughout the region,such as muay, sepak takraw and pencak silat,
have helped to transcend national boundaries and build a regional sense of community. One such sport, kabaddi, has spreadfrom India to large parts of South Asia andbeyond. Shripoorna Purohit describes how
this unique sport has gone beyond its origins and captured the public imagination.
On the other hand, the SEA Games
exhibit a complex amalgam of nationalism, patronage and corruption. Bonn Juego
explains these linkages and sketches out apath towards the depoliticisation of sports
for more positive purposes.
Photojournalist Pho Thar, recently
released from Yangon’s notorious Insein
Prison after a 14-month sentence for making fun of the military, follows a cohort ofdisabled athletes from Myanmar’s Paralympic Sports Federation. His photographs testify to the transformational power of sports.
While athletes and sports enthusiasts
around the world sport fancy jerseys provided by global brands and sponsors of large
sporting events, the workers who makethem, mostly female, toil under atrocious
conditions in the garment sectors of Cambodia and other Asian countries. Rachana
Bunn raises her voice for them, calling for

more respect for human rights, and an end
to exploitative working conditions in garment factories.
Gender fluid bodybuilder Law Siufung
discusses the multiple hurdles LGBTI athletes in Asia have to deal with, and suggests
ways to work upon the rules, norms andmarket forces towards gender diversity.
With the battle against the coronavirus
far from over, sports may seem like a distantmemory to many people. It remains uncertain whether the Olympics and Paralympics
will take place in 2021 in Tokyo, or will becancelled altogether. Nevertheless, when
the games do resume, the rich, diverse andcomplicated interactions between sports
and societies in Asia will continue. So will
the struggles over exploitation and exclusion related to class, race and gender, which,as Bonn Juego puts it, are best overcome bycollective political action.
With this issue, the production of
Perspectives Asia has moved to our new
regional office in Hong Kong. We look forward to working with the other Asian offices
of Heinrich Böll Stiftung to provide political analysis from Asia twice a year. Pleasecontact us should you have any suggestions,questions or comments.

Clemens Kunze, Kevin Li, and Lucia Siu
The Editors
Heinrich Böll Stiftung Hong Kong Office3

4

East Asia The Tokyo Olympics: East Asian Sporting Mega-events Revisited

The Tokyo Olympics: East Asian Sporting
Mega-events Revisited
Brian Bridges

East Asians take the hosting of major
sporting events very seriously. The threeprevious Summer Olympics in East Asia
all had symbolic meanings for the respective hosts and for the Olympic movement.
But the Coronacrisis has upset Japaneseambitions for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
bringing not just additional socio-economic
costs but casting a shadow over Prime
Minister Abe's political legacy.

Brian Bridges is an honorary
professor in the Department ofSocial Sciences at the Education
University of Hong Kong and anaffiliate fellow of the Centre for
Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan
University, Hong Kong. Hisinterests lie in the diplomatic history and international relationsof the Asia-Pacific region, with aparticular focus in recent years
on the sport-politics nexus. Overthe years he has visited Olympic
stadiums in Beijing and Seoul,
and the old one in Tokyo, but is
not sure when he can visit the new
Tokyo stadium.

The Olympic flame has arrived in Tokyo, but
not in the manner envisaged by the organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Reluctantly, in the face of the global coronavirus
pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Organising Committee had no option but
on 24 March to cancel the domestic torch
relay across Japan and postpone the Olympic Games until the summer of 2021. For the
moment, the Olympic flame – alight but hidden in a secret location – and the Olympic
movement remain in suspended animation.
Tokyo was set to become the first Asiancity to host two Summer Olympics. But
now it has become the first city anywherein the world to suffer two hosting disruptions. Tokyo had been due to host the 1940
Olympics until the wartime situation forced
cancellation (Collins 2007). The memory of
those “missing Olympics” has come back tohaunt Japan. This time the Olympics havebeen postponed, not cancelled, but it has
still been a bitter pill for Prime Minister Abe
Shinzo and indeed for the Japanese public
as a whole. Deputy Prime Minister Aso Tarohas even gone so far as to describe Tokyo
2020 as the “cursed Olympics”.
There is little doubt that the first two
decades of the 21st century have seen global

economic and political power slowly but
steadily shifting to Asia, especially to East
Asia. This trend now includes “soft power”
sporting mega-events. The Olympic movement, indeed, is now in the middle of a cyclethat confirms the prominence of East Asian
sporting hosts. In 2018 the Winter Olympics
were held in PyeongChang, South Korea,
while in 2022 they will be hosted by BeijingZhangjiakou. Sandwiched in the middle are
the Tokyo Summer Olympics which, under
the new timetable of July to August 2021,
will finish barely six months before the Beijing Winter Olympics begin.
Despite the internationalist Olympic
ideal of sport bringing peoples and countries
together through peaceful competition, theexciting sporting events cannot be separated
completely from the issues of nationalism
and identity, international and intra-regional
rivalry, and domestic politics. Given the legacies of historical – and even present-day –antagonisms, the East Asian region is no
exception to this rule. In fact, the East Asian
environment might even accentuate suchtendencies, for “not only is sport political, but
it is arguably more political in Asia than elsewhere in the world” (Cha 2009, 23).
The three previous East Asian Summer
Olympics had important symbolic meanings for the host countries. In 1964, Japan
had re-emerged in the world community asa peaceful and economically successful state
after its militaristic exploits during WorldWar II. South Korea’s “coming out party” atSeoul in 1988 highlighted a new economic
power, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and a self-confidence that belied thetense stalemate in inter-Korean relations on
the peninsula. The intensity and spectacular magnitude of Beijing 2008 symbolised

The Tokyo Olympics: East Asian Sporting Mega-events Revisited East Asia

China’s endeavours to secure its place – andachieve world recognition – as a major andmodernised economic, political and sporting power on the global scene, though notwithout frequent references to centuriesold Chinese culture and civilisation. Therefore, these three Games provided a means ofhighlighting the “enhanced” national identity of the respective hosts (Cha 2009; Kelly
and Brownell 2011).
Japan in 2020 or 2021 no longer needs
a “coming out party”, but it does wish toremind the world of its particular national
identity by being an efficient, welcoming
and creative host. The Rugby World Cup held
successfully across Japan in October 2019
already amply demonstrated those characteristics, which even the passing Typhoon
Hagibis could only partially dampen. Yet,in the past decade or so, despite all the eloquence of Prime Minister Abe’s claim that
“Japan is back”, Japan has been living in the
shadow of the emerging Chinese economic
and political “superpower”. The debilitating
images of the “lost decades” of the 1990s
and 2000s may have dissipated, not least
because Japan has become such a popular
tourist haven for other Asians, but in reality
Japan has continued to struggle in reconstructing its economy and way of life tocope with the demands of the 21st century.
Although international sporting rivalry
is important, not least as demonstrated by
China and the United States determinedly
pushing to garner the most gold medals,
there is also a regional dimension. This
pits Japan against its closest geographicaland sporting rivals, China and South Korea.
Japan may wish to show these neighbours
that, despite a shared turbulent past, sport
can transcend long-standing animosities,

but there is little doubt that the media andthe publics in both China and South Korea
will watch carefully for any perceived slights
or failures by Japan, especially when theirown competitors are directly facing Japanese athletes or teams (Mangan et al 2017).
Hosting the Olympics also has domestic repercussions. The economic benefits,
much touted in advance, do not always
materialize and the global media spotlightoften picks out less-than-ideal aspects of thehost society. Japan’s militaristic past and the
Abe administration’s flirting with nationalist sentiments today will certainly be aired.
Rarely is the hosting politically neutral. The
Japanese government in 1964, by running
the torch relay through Okinawa, then still
under post-war US administration, deliberately strengthened the argument for its
reversion to Japan. In South Korea the fearof losing the Olympics if martial law were to
be declared was a crucial factor in encouraging the dramatic move to democracy in1987 (Cha 2009: 123-128). Yet, paradoxically,
2008 did not bring any equivalent politicaltransformation in China, despite the wishful thinking of human rights advocates.
In the case of 2020/2021, it is long-serving Prime Minister Abe’s political legacy thatis linked to the eventual Games. His strong
determination to carry on with hosting theGames this year was reflected in a stubborn
pretence that everything was “normal” andin delaying announcing emergency measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic
until after pressure from athletes and certain countries overseas had forced the IOC
into action. His visionary economic reform
programme, labelled “Abenomics”, had run
into the ground even before the coronavirus
struck, and the additional costs incurred by

5

6

East Asia The Tokyo Olympics: East Asian Sporting Mega-events Revisitedthe postponement, which could reach as
much as USD 2.7 billion (Ozanian 2020),
will further harm the struggling economy.
Abe’s dream of revising the pacifist Constitution has also been foundering in the face ofdivided public opinion, and his high-profile
foreign policy agenda on contentious issues
with North Korea and Russia has failed to
produce any breakthroughs.

From bang to whimper
Consequently, even more than before
the postponement, Abe sees a successful Olympics as a means, perhaps the onlymeans, to enhance his own status andsecure his “place in history”. But the summer of 2021 is politically tricky, since Abe’sterm as party leader (and therefore prime
minister) expires in September and by law
he must hold a general election before late
October. With several rivals eagerly waitingin the wings, including the popular Tokyo
Governor Koike Yuriko, who has already disagreed with him publicly over his ineffective
coronavirus response, Abe may find thathis premiership ends not with a bang but awhimper. Ironically, the postponement may
actually hasten the post-Abe era in Japan.
In the three previous Asian Summer
Olympics much of the international media
interest was in how far the hosting and opening up would impact the domestic society,economy and politics of the host country.
However, the opposite question, namely
to what extent the hosts have impacted theevolution of the Olympic movement, should
also be asked. At the very least the overpowering Euro-centric lens of the IOC has been
removed (Mangan et al 2017). Following on
from Beijing 2008, the Tokyo Olympics willundoubtedly sustain this process of rebalancing the power of the “East” against the“West” in the corridors of the IOC. As a footnote, ironically the Beijing Olympics had
two other impacts on the scale and ritualsof the Olympics. The huge financial cost ofthat massive celebration ensured that subsequent Olympics, and that includes Tokyo
2020, which prides itself on a compact
hosting, will never try to compete on sucha scale. The political controversy surrounding the lengthy global torch relay in 2008
also ensured that in future all torch relays
would only occur within the host country.
In the spring of 2021 the Olympic flame will
be returned to its planned starting point inFukushima prefecture, the epicentre of thetsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011, tobegin its tour around Japan.
The Tokyo Olympics were sold to the
IOC as a means to rejuvenate Japan after
the 2011 Tohoku earthquake devastation,
as well as to showcase the combination of
innovation with traditional values (“Discover Tomorrow”). But the delayed Olympics in 2021 will take place in a completely
different atmosphere thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. The most recent Asian
Olympics in February 2018 in PyeongChang
had been marketed as opening up “New
Horizons” – bringing winter sports to newplaces – but at the last moment it changed
dramatically into the “Peace Olympics”, atleast in the rhetoric of South Korean and
IOC leaders. After escalating tensions on the
Korean peninsula in the second half of 2017
threatened to cast a warlike shadow over the
sporting events, North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un suddenly decided to seek reconciliation with the South by active participationin the Winter Olympics, sending his sister tothe opening ceremony and allowing a joint
Korean entry into the opening ceremony
and the formation of a joint women’s ice
hockey team.
So too the coronavirus outbreak and its
resolution will have major implications on
how the Tokyo Games are perceived. The
Japanese will hardly welcome any attempt
to label these as the “Coronavirus Olympics”,
but history will inevitably link these Gamesto the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, conversely,
the Japanese government and people will
have an opportunity not only to demonstrate that Japan has successfully recoveredfrom that outbreak but also to celebrate thereturn of the globe to good health. Abe’s callfor the re-scheduled Olympics to be a “beacon of hope” for the world sounds like a rhetorical flourish to mask his disappointment
at the postponement, but it also contains akernel of truth.

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3

4

5

Cha, Victor D. 2009. Beyond the Final Score: The Politics
of Sport in Asia. New York: Columbia University Press.
Collins, Sandra. 2007. The 1940 Tokyo Olympics: The
Missing Olympics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kelly, William and Susan Brownell, eds. 2011. The
Olympics in East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism andGlobalism on the Center Stage of World Sports. New
Haven: Yale University.
Mangan, J.A., Qing Luo, and Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu, eds.
2017. The Olympic Games: Asia Rising – London 2012
and Tokyo 2020. Beijing: ICUC.
Ozanian, Mike. 2020. "Postponement of Tokyo Olympics
Expected To Increase Games' Cost by $2.7 Billion.”
Forbes, March 25, 2020.

The Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics JapanThe Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo
Olympics
Koide Hiroaki

Nine years after the Fukushima nuclear
disaster, fundamental issues remain unresolved. In fact, the “Nuclear Emergency
Situation” declared on 11 March 2011
has yet to be rescinded. Many domestic
critics saw the Olympics as a ploy to
distract from the nuclear disaster. It wasconcern about the spread of Covid-19
that led to the temporary postponementof the Tokyo Olympics for one year. But
the larger question remains: Should acountry with an ongoing nuclear disasterbe hosting these games?

Nuclear power development
as national policy
In Japan, national policy has driven thedevelopment of nuclear power. Throughsuch laws as the Electricity Business Act
and the Act on Compensation for Nuclear
Damage, the government has incentivised
nuclear power generation and dragged
power companies into the business. Large
corporations, eager to partake in the profit,
came flocking, followed by the construction industry and the medium and small
businesses that worked under them. Even
the unions representing workers at thesecompanies became willing accomplices
to the nuclear enterprise. Vast sums were
expended for publicity, and the media as
well as the advertising industry trumpeted
the safety of nuclear power. A centralized
education system, in which the state plays
a dominant role in setting curricula andselecting textbooks, has ensured that children are instilled with the rosy dream ofnuclear power.
These parties spread the “myth of

nuclear safety” – that nuclear power plants
would be immune to large-scale accidents.
Japan represents less than 0.3% of the earth’s
landmass, but it is situated in a region
where four large tectonic plates jostle eachother, 20% of the world’s earthquakes occur,and 7% of the world’s volcanoes are located.
Constructing nuclear power plants on such
unstable land is necessarily courting danger.
Well aware of this, the government chose to
locate them not in cities, but in less populated areas. Resistance from these communities was met by state-deployed police
power.1 With no other recourse, they thenappealed to the courts. However, the judiciary, claiming that the disposition of nuclear
power rested with the executive branch,refused to address plaintiffs’ grievances.
Just as happened in wartime, the state
institutions that effected total mobilization of the country have directed the development of nuclear power. Eventually, 57
nuclear power plants were crowded within
the borders of Japan. These are collectively
known as the “nuclear village”.

The Fukushima DisasterOn 11 March 2011, a huge earthquake andresulting tsunami assaulted the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, triggering a catastrophe.
At the end of World War II, Japan experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.
The two cities were devastated and morethan 200,000 people lost their lives, while
100,000 survived but continued to suffer
illness and discrimination as hibakusha(atomic bomb survivors). The mushroom

Koide Hiroaki worked at the
Kyoto University Reactor
Research Institute (presently
the Kyoto University Institutefor Integrated Radiation and
Nuclear Science Research)from 1974 to 2015. Drawn tothe potential “peaceful uses ofatomic energy” in energy-poor
Japan, he studied nuclear
engineering at Tohoku University.
But the Tokyo Electric Power
Company’s decision to locate anuclear power plant in a fishingvillage, rather than in a nearby
metropolis, alerted him to thedangers such plants pose. He
then sought to master nuclear
science to prevent their construction. He is the most celebrated
critic of nuclear power in Japan,
and the author of numerous
books in Japanese. One has beentranslated into English: Rethinking Nuclear Energy: Autopsy ofan Illusion (2015).

7

8Japan The Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics

cloud released into the atmosphere by theHiroshima bomb contained 8.9x1013 becquerels of caesium 137, a radioactive material that has devastating impact on humanhealth. The Fukushima Daiichi accident
released 1.5x10 16 becquerels of caesium
137, as reported by the Japanese government to the International Atomic Energy
Agency. In other words, the Japanese government acknowledged that the amount of
this dangerous substance released in Fukushima was 168 times that of the Hiroshimabomb. If Japan were a law-abiding nationthat followed its own governmental regulations, the contamination resulting from theaccident was such that not only Fukushima,
but surrounding parts of eastern Japan – anarea amounting to 14,000 square kilometres – would have to be declared a radiation
control zone and as such, off-limits to thegeneral public. The damage caused by the
Fukushima Daiichi accident was not limited
to Fukushima Prefecture. It was an accident
that brought disaster to a large area for an
extended period of time, and I have decided
to call it the “Fukushima Disaster.”2
On the day of the accident the government issued a “Declaration of a Nuclear
Emergency Situation” and later orderedmore than 100,000 people to evacuate froman intensely contaminated area covering
approximately 1,150 square kilometres.
Evacuation was a necessary measure, ofcourse, but it meant the uprooting of lifeand loss of home. As people were moved
from abysmal evacuation centres to temporary housing to “disaster recovery housing”,
the appalling conditions led to the death ofsome, chiefly the elderly. Robbed of theirlivelihoods, families, and communal ties,
other evacuees took their own lives. There
have been more than 2,000 nuclear disaster-

related deaths.

The “radiation exposure
safety myth”
The government, moreover, suspended
laws and regulations pertaining to radiation
exposure, and abandoned several million
people to stay on in what should have beena “radiation control zone”. More than nine
years have passed since the accident, but
caesium 137, with a half-life of 30 years, hasonly been reduced to 80%, and the “Nuclear
Emergency Situation” is still in effect. Many
ordinary people, who by law should be
restricted from this contaminated area,
have had to carry on with their routines.
After the nuclear safety myth had crumbled, the nuclear village proceeded to disseminate the “radiation exposure safety
myth”. Of course, exposure entails risk. That
is why there are laws and ordinances limiting exposure. According to the International
Commission on Radiological Protection(ICRP), the level of public exposure should
not exceed 1 millisievert (mSv) per year. The
Japanese government, however, has set thelevel at 20 mSv per year, and has instructed
those who were evacuated from contaminated areas to return. Their minimal housing assistance has been terminated. Under
ICRP recommendations, 20 mSv of radiation per year is the level permitted solely
for occupational workers, who earn a living
by working with radioactivity and radiation.
The current policy of using the 20 mSv per
year standard to authorize the reopening ofrestricted areas invites impermissible levelsof exposure to the public, including children, who are highly radiosensitive.

The Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics Japan

Perpetrators who take no
responsibility
Impacts of the Fukushima Disaster continue
to the present day. Who, then, are the perpetrators? Fukushima Daiichi is a nuclear
power plant owned and operated by the
Tokyo Electric Power Company. Given thatTEPCO was responsible for the accident, itis the immediate perpetrator. And yet, on 19
September 2019, the former head and othersin positions of responsibility at TEPCO were
all declared not guilty in a criminal proceeding.3 The reasoning was that there is no suchthing as accident-proof equipment and thatto demand perfect safety would prohibit theconstruction of nuclear power plants. The
judiciary had played a role in the nuclear village from its inception. This judgment was abald display of its true nature.
As previously stated, nuclear powerin Japan began as national policy andadvanced through state mobilization. Even
if TEPCO bears immediate responsibility,
it was the government that pressed it into
nuclear power generation and guaranteed
the safety of the technology. It was Liberal
Democratic Party governments and successive prime ministers that licensed all 57
nuclear power plants in Japan. But not a single member of the LDP has taken responsibility for what occurred at Fukushima. No
one from the Ministry of Trade and Industry – the present-day Ministry of Economy,
Trade, and Industry – which advanced thenuclear agenda in lockstep with the administration, has taken responsibility. The sameis true of the nuclear power experts who
conducted safety evaluations and issued
guarantees that accidents would not occur.
No one from the media or the education
sector, both of which helped to spread thenuclear safety myth, has stepped forth totake responsibility. All of them have been
supported by the judiciary.
The lesson I have learned from the
Fukushima Disaster is this: Even if chances
are infinitesimally small, once an accident
occurs at a nuclear power plant, the damage
will be catastrophic. Given that, all plants
must immediately be dismantled. The lesson the nuclear village learned, however, isentirely different: However catastrophic theaccident, however numerous the victims,
no one will be compelled to take responsibility. For the nuclear village that survived
the Fukushima Disaster unscathed, there isnothing left to fear. Henceforth, should an
accident occur, not a single person will haveto take responsibility, and the power companies, with the generous support of thestate, will be able to recoup their losses andstart turning a profit in short order. At present, they are all at work on nuclear restarts.
Believing that they constitute a criminal
entity, I have begun to refer to them notas the “nuclear village” but as the “nuclear
mafia.”The Tokyo Olympics as
a distraction from the
Fukushima Disaster
The nuclear mafia have worked to erase the
Fukushima Disaster from the memory of
our citizenry. The mass media have all but
ceased to report on the event. The schools
are providing a “supplementary textbook”
to teach children that exposure to radiation
is nothing much to worry about. And theultimate weapon has been the Olympics.
In every era, to avert the eyes of the citi-

910Japan The Fukushima Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics

zenry from the real hardships that confront
them, governments have had recourse tobread and circuses. In September 2013,
two-and-a-half years after the Fukushima
Disaster, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo won
the Olympics for Tokyo by lying that thesituation was “under control”. The Aberegime was using the Olympics to erase thememory of the Fukushima Disaster fromcitizens’ minds. Now, many Japanese havebeen driven to the brink of forgetfulness.
In early 2020, however, Covid-19 madeits appearance and began to spread inJapan as elsewhere. Nevertheless, Prime
Minister Abe, determined not to see his
Olympic dreams thwarted, underestimatedthe spread of the virus and tried to ignore it.
Domestic infections spread relentlessly, andon 7 April he was forced to declare a stateof emergency. The Abe government decided
to postpone the Olympics for approximately
one year, but whether the spread of Covid19 will have been contained within that timeis unknowable.
In Japan, even as a Covid-19 emergency declaration was issued, the “Nuclear
Emergency Situation” precipitated by the
Fukushima Disaster was still in effect. Of
the radionuclides released by that accident,
caesium 137 is still of greatest concern.
In 100 years’ time, caesium 137 will havedeclined to one-tenth of its original levels.
But that will still leave a vast area that should
be deemed a radiation control zone. The
Covid-19 emergency declaration was liftedfrom all areas by 25 May. One hundred years
hence, I will certainly not be here; indeed,even when the babies born today have diedout, Japan will still be living under a nuclear
emergency situation.
Concern about the spread of Covid-19
led to the postponement of the Tokyo Olym-

pics for one year. As the virus spreads, notonly in Japan but throughout the world, theview is growing that instead of clinging to
the Games, with their wasteful expenditures,
it would be wiser to declare their cancellation sooner rather than later. Given that the
Olympics were meant to distract from the
Fukushima Disaster, Japan should not havebid for them in the first place. Indeed, it isprecisely on the grounds of the continuing
tragedy of the Fukushima Disaster that the
Olympics should be canceled.
* This article is translated by Prof Norma
Field from Japanese.

Scan QR code below for a special video message of Koide Hiroaki

1

Instances of police repression of the antinuclear
movement abound. Public hearings on the location of
nuclear power plants and meetings for deciding on thesurrender of fishery rights have been characteristic
targets. The readiness of the police to arrest and detain
antinuclear citizens for the slightest offense has led eventhe courts to acknowledge an “apparent readiness todeliberately repress the antinuclear movement”.
2[Translator’s note] “Fukushima” in this usage is written
in a phonetic script rather than in the Sino-Japanesecharacters used to designate the prefecture. The
implication is that the phenomenon cannot be grasped asbounded by a geographic-administrative unit, much as“Hiroshima,” written similarly, points to a vastly larger
phenomenon than what befell a single city.
3
Johnson, David T., Hiroshi Fukurai and Mari Hirayama.
2020. “Reflections on the TEPCO Trial: Prosecution andAcquittal after Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown.” The AsiaPacific Journal, 18(2), no. 1 (15 January 2020).

Asia at the Olympics Asia

Asia at the Olympics
Ashish Khandalikar

The modern Olympic Games are the foremost international sporting events in which
thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions.
The Summer and Winter Olympic Games are each held once every four years, with aninterval of two years between them. The first modern Olympics were held 124 years ago
in 1896 in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece. At those Games, 241 athletes
from 14 nations competed in 43 events. Many economic, political and technological advancements later, a whopping 11,091 athletes from 216 nations were set to compete in
339 events at the latest edition of the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2020. Unfortunately,
these Games were postponed to 2021, due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.

Asian Participation and Medals in Olympics
Population, participation and medals won, by continent, from 1896 Athens to 2016 Rio Olympics
Population (in millions)Asia
AfricaEuropeAmericas
Oceania

5,945
1,331
904
791
42

66.0%
14.8%
10.0%
8.8%
0.5%

Participants (in thousands)

EuropeAmericas
Asia
AfricaOceania

77.7
27.2
17.4
7.8
5.7

57.2%
20.0%
12.8%
5.7%
4.2%

Medals (absolute)

EuropeAmericas
Asia
Oceania
Africa12,006
4,000
1,848
652
394

63.5%
21.2%
9.8%
3.4%
2.1%

The above bar charts show the populationin the five continents of the world, as wellas the number of Olympics participants andthe number of medals won in each continent. It is worth noting that even though
66% of the world population today resides
in Asiai, only 12.8% of participants havecome from Asia. On the other hand, morethan half of the participants (57.2%) havecome from Europe, which has only about
10% of the world population. A majority of
the 12.8% of Asian participants have comefrom only three countries: Japan (24%),
China (15%), and South Korea (13%).

Ashish Khandalikar is anindependent data visualisation
designer based in Pune, India.
He creates interactive
visualisations and infographics
to explain, explore or tell stories
about our complex world. He
has a bachelor’s degree in designfrom IIT Guwahati and has
previously worked for Deloitte asa UX designer. Making sense ofcomplex datasets, finding insights
and effectively communicatingthem is what drives him. Besides
creating visualisations, heloves to run long distancemarathons. You can reach him at
ashishkhandalikar@gmail.com.

11

12

Asia

Asia at the Olympics

With respect to medals, Asia has won
1,848, or 9.8% of the total. The majority ofthese have gone to the same three countries: China with 595 medals (29.1%); Japan
with 482 (23.6%); and South Korea with 316(15.5%). Another interesting point is that,looking at the number of medals won relative to population, Oceania dominates every
other continent by a huge margin, with 155
medals per 10 million people (chart below).
Asia and Africa, where approximately 80%of the world population resides, have each
won three medals per 10 million people.
The first athletes from Asia to compete in the Summer Olympic Games were
two men who took part in the 1900 Olympics held in Paris. They were Firidun Malkom Khan from Iran and Norman Gilbert
Pritchard from Indiaii. Pritchard won two
Silver medals for India in the men’s 200m
and 200m hurdles events. The rise and fallin the number of participants over the years
mirrors the major events of modern history.
The Olympic Games were canceled in 1916
due to World War I. The Games were again
canceled in 1940 and 1944 due to World War
II. Participation dropped at the Montreal
Games in 1976 and the Moscow Games in
1980. The slight drop in Asian participation in 1976 was because Iraq and Sri Lanka

Number of Medals in Relative Terms
Total number of medals won per
10 million of the populationin modern Olympic Games(1896-2016)
Surprisingly, Oceania,
which ranks lowest in
absolute medal count,ranks first in medals
relative to population,with 155 per 10 million
people.

155
Oceania3
Africa133
Europe3
Asia

Please use the QR code to access the interactive version and explore
more related statistics.

51
Americasjoined 22 African nations in boycotting theGames, refusing to participate alongside
New Zealand, whose rugby team had toured
South Africa that summer, breaking an international sports embargo against that country
due to its apartheid policy. Participation was
further reduced in 1980 when 65 nations
boycotted the Moscow Games in response to
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The first woman from Asia to participate in the Olympics was Nora Margaret
Polley at the 1924 Games held in Paris. She
represented India in tennis. She was boththe first and the only woman from Asia toparticipate that year. Women’s participationrose rapidly after the 1980 Moscow Games,and by 2016, when the Games were held in
Rio de Janeiro, the number of women athletes, at 892 (47.8%), was nearly equal to thenumber of men, at 975 (52.2%).
To explore the number of participants
for the rest of the continents, please use thedropdown menu in the interactive versionof the article. Also, hovering over any year in
the interactive version will bring up a tooltip
providing additional information, including
the percentages of men and women participants for that year.
The first Winter Olympics were heldin 1924 in Chamonix, France, where 258
athletes from 16 nations competed in 16
events. Among them were eight men from
Asia. A group of seven men from India andone from Nepal, named Tejbir Bura, participated as a team in the mixed alpinism event
and won a Gold medal! Interestingly, it is the
only Gold medal that Nepal has ever won.
However, since the medal was awarded tothe mixed team, the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) doesn’t recognize it as an
official medal of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Nepal.
The first woman to participate in theWinter Olympics from Asia was Etsuko
Inada in 1936, at the Games held in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She
represented Japan in figure skating, and was
only 12 years old!
It should be noted that, over the years,
the participation of Asian countries in theWinter Olympics has steadily increased aswell. The participation dropped a bit at the
1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, as
those were the first Games at which stricter
qualifying standards were implemented.
However, the number of athletes from Asia
jumped from 144 in 1994 to 335 at the very
next Games in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. A key
reason for the rise was the addition of newAsia at the Olympics Asia

Participation in Summer Olympics
1200
1000
800
600
WW I

WW II

400
Women

Men
200

1896 Athens
1900 Paris
1904 St. Louis
1906 Athens
1908 London
1912 Stockholm
1916
1920 Antwerp
1924 Paris
1928 Amsterdam
1932 Los Angeles
1936 Berlin
1940
1944
1948 London
1952 Helsinki
1956 Melbourne
1960 Rome
1964 Tokyo
1968 Mexico City
1972 Munich
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing
2012 London
2016 Rio de Janeiro

0

sports including women’s ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. Just as in the Summer Olympics, by the 2014 Winter Gamesin Sochi, Russia, the number of men andwomen participants had evened out, with
169 men (53.1%) and 149 women (46.9%)
competing.
At first, the Winter Olympics were held inthe same year as the Summer Olympics. But
in 1986 the IOC voted to change the scheduleand hold the competitions two years apart.
This decision was officially endorsed in

1992 by the IOC, which was then headed by
Juan Antonio Samaranch. Jason Stallman, asports editor at The New York Times, said:“It (the separation) gave the Winter Games achance to shine on their own. They had beensomewhat overshadowed by the mighty
Summer Games and it allowed for increased
TV coverage, which means massive amountsof money for the IOC.” Accordingly, the 1994
Games at Lillehammer, Norway, became thefirst Winter Games to be held separately fromthe Summer Games.

Participation in Winter Olympics
200

150

100
WW II

Women

Men

50

2014 Sochi

2006 Torino
2010 Vancouver

1998 Nagano

2002 Salt Lake City

1994 Lillehammer

1988 Calgary

1992 Albertville1976 Innsbruck1980 Lake Placid
1984 Sarajevo

1972 Sapporo

1968 Grenoble

1964 Innsbruck1960 Squaw Valley

1952 Oslo

1956 C. d'Ampezzo

1948 St. Moritz

1940
1944

1936 Bavaria

1928 St. Moritz

1932 Lake Placid

1924 Chamonix

0

13

14

Asia

Asia at the Olympics

Medals Won by Asian Countries (2016)
Country

Total
Medals 0

China

70

Japan

41

South Korea

21

Kazakhstan

18

Uzbekistan

13

Iran

8

North Korea

7

Thailand6

Malaysia

5

Indonesia

3

Mongolia

2

India

2

Bahrain

2

UAE

1

Tajikistan

1

Singapore

1

Qatar

1

Philippines

1

Jordan

1

10

20

30

Gold

The above chart shows the number
of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals won by
Asian countries at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Out of the 45 countries that are a part ofAsia today, 19 of them won medals in 2016.
China, Japan and South Korea dominatedthe medals count, as always, claiming 132
medals, or 64.7%, of the total won by Asian
countries. Kazakhstan won 18 medals, while
Uzbekistan won 13. The rest of the countries
won medals in single digits.

i

ii

40

Silver50

Bronze

60

70

Total

In the interactive version of this article,
use the dropdown Year and City to selectany of the other Olympic Games since 1896.
Similarly, use the other dropdowns to selectthe Continent, Season, Category or Sport tofind each country’s rank.

The countries are categorised according to the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). Countries which are
no longer a part of the modern world are categorised according to United Nations Geoscheme classification.
Olympic historians separate Indian results from British ones despite India's lack of independence before 1947.
Individual Olympic Athletes (IOA) are athletes who have competed under the Olympic Flag because of political transitions,international sanctions or suspensions of National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
Refugee Olympics Team (ROT) is a part of the Individual Olympic Athletes (IOA) group.
Historic identities of teams have been retained. For example, medals won by teams competing under the flag of the Soviet
Union are counted separately from those won by teams under the flag of Russia.
The data covers all the modern Olympic Games (Summer and Winter) from 1896 in Athens till 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Source: https://www.sports-reference.com/

From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China China

15

From the Streets to Stadiums:
Extreme Sports in China
An interview with Dr Ding Yiyin

Extreme sports, a type of strenuous risk-taking physical pursuit ranging from BMX
racing and skateboarding to rock-climbing and snowboarding, arrived in China in the
1990s, promoted by the media and positioned as a western subculture. For Chinese
people, it was a time when many started to benefit from economic growth and to havegreater access to overseas cultures, with the spread of such sports moving in parallelwith urban development, social change, and globalisation.
The “cool” image of young people engaged in the spectacular and risky
routines associated with extreme sports, along with the self-expression they embodied, was totally unknown in China, attracting a groupof youthful urbanites in major cities. These skateboarders, rollerbladers, and BMX enthusiasts became participants in the country’s firstwave of extreme sportsX .
Below, extreme sports researcher Dr Ding Yiyin explains how andwhy this dynamic category of activities has followed its own developmental path in China and the social impact of this intrepid new
sporting horizon.

What is the history of BMX and other extreme sports in China?
This is really the story of how a small number of young people in
China adopted a western subculture. Take BMX freestyle, which cameto China in the 1990s. Shenzhen and Guangzhou were the first places
it landed because of the influence of nearby and highly internationalised Hong Kong. Later, Shanghai and Beijing also saw some developments. The “pioneers” learnt about extreme sports through websites
and media, with television network ESPN playing a major role by hosting and broadcasting the annual X Games. From 2007-15, the yearly
X Games Asia were held in Shanghai, nurturing the first generation of
extreme sports fans in China.

How large is the extreme sports scene in China? What facilities are available?
I only have numbers for BMX riders. In 2017, a Canadian BMX sportsperson familiar with the scene in China estimated there were around
300 practising on a regular basis, spread across 10 to 20 cities. In fact,
among those doing extreme sports in China, very few could be classed
as “professionals” in the same way as traditional sportspeople. Most
are enthusiasts, who rely on more than one source of income. In comparison, extreme sports professionals in other countries are more

Dr Ding Yiyin is currently alecturer at Hangzhou Normal University, with a particular researchinterest in extreme sports. She
holds a PhD in sports studies
from Waseda University in Japan,
and her paper, “Parents, Me& X-Sports: Mapping the BMX
Culture in Contemporary China”,
was the first on the country’s
BMX activities to be published by
the international Journal of Sportand Social Issues (Vol 43, Issue 5,
October 2019).
Interview by:
Zhang Rou, Heinrich Böll Stiftung
Beijing Representative Office16

China From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China

Philip McMaster on Flickr

The first BMX cycling race in history was held in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

committed and operate at higher levels of competitiveness.
In China, there haven’t been any clear regulations on the use of
public sports facilities for extreme sports training and practising. Riders and skateboarders also practise in public areas, including stairs
and open spaces. We have seen more skateparks built in the past few
years. Of course, space for facilities tends to be inadequate, given thesize of the country’s population. At the same time, the number of people engaging in extreme sports is not that big.

Are there any cities or state bodies focused on fostering extreme sports?
In recent years, Chengdu has promoted extreme sports by becoming
part of the International Festival of Extreme Sports (FISE) World Seriesin 2014 and designating a space in the outskirts of the city as its FISE
sports park. The Chinese Extreme Sports Association is China’s usual
official representative in the global arena, while the Chinese Cycling
Association is the managing organisation for BMX in the Olympics.

What has changed since additional extreme sports were included in the 2020 Olympics?
The national BMX team was established in 2018, with members
recruited from earlier try-outs. Less than half had previous BMX training. The rest came from other sports, such as cycling and acrobatics.
A greater number of people have also become aware of extreme
sports and these activities have become more accepted by society. In major cities where BMX culture has a presence, equipment
stores often serve as a hub for riders. According to my conversations
with such shop owners, it seems that general understanding of different extreme sports has increased along with a deepening of interest among participants, thanks to greater media coverage. Based onsales, though, the number of new participants doesn’t seem to haveincreased significantly.

From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China China

Nor has a higher profile translated into much wider influence forthe subculture behind these sports. While more BMX training courses
for children are now available in major cities, providing additional
income for BMX riders as trainers, this development has also distracted riders from their training and improving their own performance.

Some sportspeople have mentioned the dichotomy between a “free” sport and “standardised” training and scoring. How do you view this? And how do China's extreme
sports teams position themselves in terms of mainstream vs minority?
Extreme sports in China have had a relatively short history and mostpeople are unfamiliar with the attributes – trendy, thrilling, challenging – that young people attach to this subculture. Initially, some spectators even considered BMX freestyle just a type of acrobatics.
I don’t have direct contact with members of the national team.
However, some had been selected previously for provincial teams andleft due to different expectations related to pay, rigid training requirements, among other reasons. In addition, public interest peaked at
the time of the announcement that more extreme sports were to be
included in the Olympics and this has since cooled down. Even though
there are national and provincial teams, the professional capacity ofcoaches, design of training routines, and quality of equipment are notsatisfactory.
In terms of mainstream vs minority, this is more a structural issue
than a sports issue. Firstly, most BMX riders in the 16 to 24-year-old
age range haven’t received a lot of education. Their behaviour and perception of themselves are influenced by their educational level, which
later shapes their image in the eyes of the public. Misunderstandings about this subculture, and even prejudice from those outside thescene, have led members to seek internal recognition within the group.
Some also expressed willingness to behave in a more “conventional”
way to improve the public image of BMX riders. It all relates to how
this subculture wants to distinguish itself.

In your earlier research, you concluded that parents’ attitude was a key factor when it
comes to career choice. Could you elaborate on this?
Most BMX riders in today’s China are from one-child families, withparents’ top priorities being the health and safety of their only offspring. Extreme sports rely on in-depth knowledge, experience, andgear to protect participants, which may not be easily available forteenagers who start their training on the streets. Another importantconcern is economic: providing financial support is a way for parents
to supervise their child before they become financially independent.
In addition, as an only child, choosing a sports career could have substantial impact on the overall family and its economic position.
This strong economic interdependence means that extreme sports– which under most circumstances in China don’t guarantee a stable
income – are not going to be regarded as a good choice. Moreover, howa person defines his or her own identity often depends on their family
background. Young sports participants without previous family ties tothe field are especially likely to resort to their own family backgroundto construct their self-identity and self-worth. As a result, some move
to more “stable” jobs after just a few years of training.

17

18

China From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China

Nicholas Sheard on Wikimedia

UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Chengdu, China.

What are your observations from a gender perspective?
A few women undertake BMX training, but the number is small compared to men. In the national BMX team, for example, almost all of thefemale members come from acrobatics. In general, there are limited
numbers of female participants in every extreme sport. Male participants also have also a higher level of attainment.
But extreme sports could indeed play a role in promoting genderequality. A documentary about female skateboarders in Afghanistan
has shown how teenage girls can benefit from extreme sports as they
are based around individual capacity and performance. Compared togroup sports that tend to be more confrontational and male-oriented,
anyone interested in extreme sports, irrespective of gender, can givethem a try. In addition, BMX activities and some other extreme sports
do not require newcomers to train and practise in professional sports
venues, making them less restrictive then they may appear.

What are the differences with Japan’s approach to extreme sports in the 2020 Olympics?
Inclusion of additional extreme sports in the 2020 Olympics wasintended to make the whole event more attractive to the younger generation and, hopefully, increase viewing figures. As the host country,
Japan was able and willing to recommend more such sports as “new”
events because the skills of Japanese extreme sports participants arecompetitive enough to win medals.
Japan was the first country in Asia to accept western extreme sports.
There is also more international exchange between top extreme sportspeople. Consequently, the popularity of extreme sports and participants’ skills in Japan are higher than other Asian countries. In addition
to land-based activities such as BMX and skateboarding, Japan also
has high-achieving surfers, due in part to its geographic advantage.
The fully-fledged development of a range of extreme sports and popularity of this subculture go hand in hand.

From the Streets to Stadiums: Extreme Sports in China China

Are some riders in China against the commercialisation of their sport?
There has been some controversy over this. The introduction of business elements may twist the original purpose of a sport to a certain
extent. And, as a subculture, the social rebellion aspect tends to bewatered down when commercial interests are involved. Similarly,
some overseas participants are against inclusion in the Olympics, as
they are afraid the core spirit of the sport will be lost. In China, a few
BMX riders are uninterested in commercialisation, mainly those who
really identify with the subculture behind the sport. However, most arefine with it, and ready to cooperate with business. Being a sponsored
BMX rider by top brands is in fact an honour. As yet, though, a professional sponsorship model has not been fully established in China.

Are there any other significant issues to help people understand more about the development and challenges of extreme sports in China?
First, extreme sports in China, as indicated by BMX and skateboarding, are still at an early stage. Participant numbers are small and skills
need to be improved.
Second, a more globalised youth culture, originating in the US andEurope, has become increasingly recognised in China. However, toenhance extreme sports performance, a much larger group of people
needs to be involved.
One way to see the current stage of China’s extreme sports development is to look at how international extreme sports brands perceive
the market. In their definition, extreme sports are among the typeof leisure activities that rely for expansion on the growth of middleincome residents and improved living standards. Currently, in addition to a lack of cultural capital for extreme sports, the “middle class”
that could incubate the market in China is not fully developed either.
Management and development would need different stakeholders
to be involved as well as identification of a way forward that fits withlocal reality. However, given the low probability of attaining a gold
medal, extreme sports in China may not receive much attention fromthe government. Overall, more social understanding of extreme sports
and the culture behind them is still needed.

What is your own favourite sport or activity?
Dancing!

19

20Southeast Asia Sport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals, It’s the ‘We’ FeelingSport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals,
It’s the ‘We’ Feeling
Johanna Son

Despite Southeast Asia’s diversity andthe tensions that persist among countries,
sport has been able to transcend geopolitical boundaries and connect communities that have similar histories – andcultivate an appetite and appreciation for
their native sports as well as their unique
identities.

Johanna Son is the Bangkok-based
editor/founder of the Reporting
ASEAN series, an independent venue
for in-depth reportage of regional
issues and capacity building among
Southeast Asian journalists. She
writes analyses for the Bangkok Postand contributes to the Nikkei Asian
Review. Johanna is also a consultant
trainer for the Fojo Media Institute(Sweden) in its work with media
trainers in Cambodia, Lao PDR,
Myanmar and Vietnam.
A former regional director for IPS
Asia-Pacific news, she has edited
16 media-related publications andreports, and has written twojournalism handbooks. Among theseis Reportage around ASEAN-related
Issues: A Tip Sheet (2019).

“We were really having a problem. The
games were about to end, and Timor Lestestill didn’t have a single medal. People wereasking: ‘Is there a way they’re going to winanything?’” Karen Caballero, an official on
the Philippine Olympic Committee, wasrecalling how the hometown crowd at the2019 Southeast Asian Games cheered for thetiny country and wanted it to bring homea medal. “When they won (one), we were
almost in tears!” she added.
This camaraderie among sport rivals
is familiar to Kerstin Ong, a 100-metres
hurdler from Singapore who has competed in youth games in the region. “Thereis definitely a difference in atmospherecompeting within the region as comparedto events larger than the Southeast Asia
region,” agreed the 23-year-old Ong. For
one, athletes who see one another in different meets become friends. “Off the track wewould laugh and eat together,” she said. A
Malaysian rival once gave her advice when
she confided her worries about her athletic
performance, she recalls. “We hugged after.”
These two stories show the different but
connected threads that sport pulls together
into an arena that nurtures the ‘we’ feelingamong Southeast Asians. The region’s morethan 650 million people share histories andlinkages that predate, and go beyond, thescope of the geopolitical entity that is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Ask a Southeast Asian about sport, andhe or she will mention the SEA Games, as
the Southeast Asian Games is called. Organised by the Southeast Asian Games Federation, the biennial event started in 1959. As ageographically defined event, all 11 Southeast Asian countries take part. This includes
Timor Leste, whose application to join ASEAN’s 10-member club remains pending.
In short, sport has been able to go
beyond geopolitical restrictions. This helps
explain why, apart from medal tallies, thebiggest story at the last SEA Games was how
Filipinos rooted for the underdog, Timor
Leste. The country of 1.3 million people had
sent just 48 athletes to compete in 10 out of
the total 56 events. Timor Leste’s athletes
went home with six medals.
“Even if it’s just in sports, they know they
can identify with a certain bloc,” remarked
Caballero, who is also president of the Philippine Sepak Takraw Association, home ofher country’s national ‘kick volleyball’ team.
“By having participated in this SEA
Games, we feel that we are part of ASEAN
already,” Elisa da Silva, counsellor in Timor
Leste’s embassy in Bangkok, said, sharing
her personal views.

Indigenous SportThe SEA Games stands out for another reason: It is the only international sporting
event that features indigenous sports fromthe region. Audiences will find sporting
events and styles not seen elsewhere, suchas barefoot athletes swinging swords andbladed weapons, in garb reminiscent of
warriors from times that pre-date today’s
nation states in Southeast Asia.

Sport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals, It’s the ‘We’ Feeling

Muay, sepak takraw and pencak silat are
the most high-profile native sporting eventsin the Games’ lineup.
Muay is Southeast Asian kickboxing,
shared by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand andMyanmar. The origins of sepak takraw,
where players use strength, speed and acrobatic skills to kick a woven ball over a net,are said to go back to the 15th century. It has
been included in the SEA Games since 1965.
Pencak silat is a martial art form traditionally practiced in the Malay Archipelago, in
countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, the southern regions ofThailand and the Philippines. Inscribed by
UNESCO as part of the ‘intangible cultural
heritage of humanity’ in 2019, its popularity
among Islamic communities reflects Malay
identity.
There are other native sports, suchas the Philippines’ martial art arnis, thatits proponents are trying to promote inregional circles. This is because arnis, whichgoes back centuries to pre-colonial times, islesser known than other native sports in
the region, even though it is the country’s
national sport. Athletes use bladed weapons
or sticks and compete in traditional attire
such as the bahag (G-string).
Arnis is much more than a sport, say
trainers and coaches like Ronaldo and Jessielyn Baxafra. “It’s not only the art itself that
arnis promotes, but our culture. That’s thebeauty of arnis,” said Jessielyn, a technicalofficial in the sport. She added: “In these(regional) events, (you see how) camaraderie
grows among the athletes. It’s not like ‘I’ma Vietnamese medalist’ or ‘I’m a Filipino
medalist’. They become more friendly, theirrespect for each other is there whether you
win or lose.”

The high profile of combat in indigenous sports, for instance in kickboxing or
martial arts, is a reference point for athletes
and fans across borders. “The nice thingis countries like Cambodia and Myanmar
have weaponry almost similar to arnis,
though they may be more on bladed weapons,” Ronaldo said.
Native sport is also carving out aspace for cross-border – and cross-sport –exchanges in Southeast Asia, which go along way towards expanding knowledge of
one another’s communities. Trainers travel
to work with other countries’ athletes. The
coaching staff of the Lao football team, forexample, includes a Myanmar trainer. Somecoaches ‘migrate’ to other combat forms,
such as arnis athletes learning to teachmuay thai.

A Fighting Chance
When athletes complete in Southeast Asia,
they know they have a fighting chance, athletes, current and former sports professionals interviewed for this article agree.
“It’s fun because most ASEAN countries
are on par. That’s what makes the (ASEAN
Football) Cup attractive, the balance ofcompetition and its (regional) identity,” said
Juan Miguel David, a former futsal (indoor
football) competitions manager in the AsianFootball Confederation. “There’s no one
country that monopolises all of the championships; like Malaysia has won a coupleof times, Thailand, and Vietnam.”
Football is unrivalled as the most popular sport across Southeast Asia, except inbasketball-crazy Philippines. When Vietnam won the 2018 ASEAN Football Cup forSoutheast Asia

21

22

Southeast Asia Sport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals, It’s the ‘We’ Feeling©️ doubleightt Xuan YuanBBB, all rights reserved

It’s fun because most ASEAN countries are on par. There’s no one country that monopolises all of the championships.

the first time in a decade, its streets erupted
with flag-waving motorcades well into thenext morning.
ASEAN has bigger football ambitions. At
their 2019 summit, ASEAN leaders restateda plan to submit a joint bid to host a FIFA
(Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup, with a 2034 target date.
Last year, ASEAN signed an agreement withFIFA around sports development.

Sports Diplomacy
For all the connections that sport makes, it
has not been immune from tensions thatarise from touchy issues such as whichsport originally belonged to which country. Sports diplomacy has come into play inorder to find the middle path through issuesof nationalism, history and emotion. Try
asking Southeast Asians whose sport sepak
takraw is, or where muay came from among
Thais, Cambodians, Lao and Burmese, andthere may well be need for a referee.
But true to the regional habit of consensus, Southeast Asian sports bodies agreed touse ‘sepak takraw’, which combines sepak or‘kick’ in Malay and takraw, a Thai word forthe rattan ball originally used in the game.
The SEA Games uses the single word muay
for kickboxing, without any adjective that
attaches it to any country or tradition.
Caballero confirms that the muay issue
has led to intense discussions in the SEA
Games Federation, which comprises the

11 countries’ federations. “They sometimes
really end up arguing – banter, friendly
debate – but you know they’re getting oneach other’s nerves. (So we said) okay, we're
all sports people here, we can agree on
something neutral,” she said. “You’d be surprised; these are elderly sports leaders!”
Muay Thai is described as having
descended from muay boran, which refers
to ‘traditional kickboxing’. There is muayLao, kun Khmer (Khmer boxing) from Cambodia and let-hwei, or full-contact boxing in
Myanmar.
The friction is far from surprising: their
kickboxing forms are the national sports ofThailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
But analysts say the point is that when communities know one another, they find a way
to get through these differences.
“The fact that there are similarities inseveral ‘traditional sports’ shows that Southeast Asia has more commonalities that stemfrom a shared source from the region’s premodern past, than very stark differences,”
said Moe Thuzar, senior fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“There has been an increasing awarenessand acceptance that sport can and does
contribute to the ‘we feeling’ in Southeast
Asia and that ASEAN could leverage thoseexisting foundations,” she said. “It is notunder-used as such, but (it is) rather a matter of synergy between a long-establishedtradition and practice, before ASEAN formal
mechanisms were established (SEA Games),
and the current moves for an ASEAN com-

Sport in Southeast Asia: More than Medals, It’s the ‘We’ Feelingmunity that seek to bring together thepolitical, economic and sociocultural livesof Southeast Asian citizens.”
There are other ASEAN region-wide
sporting events, such as games for university and secondary school athletes. The
ASEAN Para Games, for differently abledathletes, is usually held soon after the SEA
Games.
“Sport is more easily digestible and lesssensitive as an issue. People can easily
relate to it and it attracts mass audiences,”
explained Siti Sumrit, head of the poverty
eradication and gender division at the
Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat.
“This is about getting to know eachother, or realising there is something similar
between you and me,” said Caballero. The
SEA Games’ 2019 edition was its 30th, and
the Games federation is 60 years old. “It’svery clear that it’s been a uniting factor,” sheadded.

Investing in WomenWork lies ahead for Southeast Asia whenit comes to more equal opportunities for
women in sport, from athletes to leaders ofsports associations. This has very real bearing on the region’s ambition to host a FIFA
World Cup, since gender balance is becoming a norm in world events.
FIFA signed its first agreement with UN
Women on gender equality and women’s
empowerment only in 2019. Before theTokyo 2020 Olympics was postponed, theInternational Olympic Committee was
expecting female athletes to make up 49%of the total, up from 34% in 1996. Its goal isto have full gender representation in all 206
teams in Tokyo, and full gender parity by the2024 games.
Before the 2019 SEA Games, Filipino
sports columnist Joaquin Henson cited registration statistics showing that 61% of thenearly 6,000 athletes were male. The SEA
Games do not have gender representationor parity goals.
On ASEAN Day in August 2019, theASEAN Secretariat hosted an event on
women’s football in majority-Muslim Indonesia. ASEAN’s Sumrit says she hopes thatwomen’s football can help change attitudes
towards gender equality as it can reach“wider audiences with simple messages ascompared to political language or more
official advocacy”. She added: “It should

start from a young age (that) girls can play
football if they want to and should not be
instructed, encouraged or confined to play
Barbie, princess or even baby dolls thatreinforce gender stereotypes and limit theirunderstanding of ‘possibilities’ and ‘choices’in life. We want to see them become norms
and standards, and not exceptions, in therealm of sport.”
An exception is still what the Philippines’ Caballero is among Southeast Asia’s
sepak takraw federations. Her 10 counterparts are male.
But women have been rewriting thestory of Southeast Asian sport. Take thePhilippines, whose four golds in the 2018
Asian Games were won by women – weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz (Olympic silver medalistin 2016, SEA Games gold medalist in 2019),
golfers Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan andLois Kaye Go, and street skateboarder Margielyn Didal.
Making it part of the ‘new normal’ tosee more women across the sport ecosystem, along with the popularisation of native
sports, would not only make the sports
scene more interesting but reflect better
what makes its communities Southeast
Asian.

Southeast Asia

23

24

Myanmar We are the Champions

We are the Champions
Photographs by Pho Thar

Myanmar is among Asia’s poorest countries, with limited resources to promote sports. Disabled athletes forma particularly marginal group among sports enthusiasts in the country. But they work hard and some of them
have been remarkably successful in international sports competitions, especially the ASEAN Para Games. This
photo story tells of their lives in training. The images were taken at various times between 2017 and 2019 at thetraining facility of the Myanmar Paralympic Sports Federation in North Dagon Township, Yangon, which houses
about 150 athletes.

All photographs of this photostory:© Pho Thar, all rights reserved

Athlete Sithu Htet, 22

We are the Champions Myanmar

In September 2017 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, hosted the 9th ASEAN Para Games. The
Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) holds this regional sports competition every two or three years, after theregional Southeast Asian Games. In Malaysia, 384 Myanmar athletes participated in
29 events, winning 11 gold, 15 silver and 17
bronze medals. This was a major success fordisabled athletes in a country that has little
regard and little support for them.
The athletes are part of the Myanmar
Paralympic Sports Federation, an independent organisation, mainly supportedby the military community and the Ministry of Health and Sports. Many Paralympic athletes are former soldiers, wounded
and disabled in battles with Ethnic Armed
Organisations (EAOs) –minority insurgent
groups – fighting the central government
for autonomy.
Some EAOs are part of the Nationwide
Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) concluded in2015, which has ended hostilities in parts ofthe country. Further negotiations to end theconflicts continue until today, but a lasting
peace, which would require a federal political structure acceptable to all sides, seems
far away.
According to Halo Trust, an agency
specializing in landmine clearance “[t]hepeople of Myanmar have suffered the longest-running civil war in history. Hundredsof thousands of people have been killed
and displaced, and a deadly legacy of landmines stops farmers from cultivating theirland and families from returning home…
[A]pproval has not yet been granted forhumanitarian landmine clearance. In themeantime, accidents continue to happen
and children, unaware of the dangers, aremost at risk.”1
In 2020, the Tatmadaw National Armydeclared a unilateral ceasefire due to
Covid-19. However, the war in Northern
Rakhine between the Arakan Army and theTatmadaw continues even during the pandemic.

1“Clearing Landmines in Myanmar.” The Halo Trust.
https://www.halotrust.org/where-we-work/south-asia/
myanmar/ Retrieved on 4 July 2020.

25

Sithu Htet: “I had many girlfriends because they like athletic types like me. But they all eventually left me. My dream is to open a phone service shop.”

Athletes train and have fun together.

Sithu Htet: “I come from a village in the Delta area. When I was a child, my friends called me‘monkey’. I was angry and told them I would come back when I was successful.”

26

Myanmar We are the Champions“I was able to come back [to the training facility] because my parents
can pay USD 10 a month. They do random jobs at Thanlyin Township.”(Sithu Htet, 22, competing in the “Track and Field” category that
includes running, jumping, and throwing.)

We are the Champions Myanmar“The Malaysia games were the first competition I entered. I wore a glove which I had
bought for 50 cents. I was ashamed when fellow athletes looked at me. Now, after
learning from YouTube, I can make my own gloves.”

27

28

Myanmar We are the Champions

Inkyin Khin, 20, has won a silver and two bronze medals in the “Track and Field” category that includes running, jumping, and throwing. She was born without her right leg.
She is now preparing for her high school final exams. Only about 10% of the athletes training at the camp are women.

The basketball team performing a group ritual before training. “Nobody welcomed us when we came back with medals from international Para Games, but [in the future]
we are still expecting even more medals than in the previous games.” After the 2017 success in Kuala Lumpur, more funds were provided to allow the athletes to train
throughout the year. They were keen to prepare for the games in the Philippines, scheduled for early 2020, but cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.

We are the Champions Myanmar

The Myanmar Paralympic Sports Federation provides a place to train andall the equipment, but the athletes must pay USD 10 per month for food.

Kyaw Kyaw Win, 31, was a soldier in the Tatmadaw. He lost his right leg
when he stepped on a landmine in Kayah State twelve years ago. At three
ASEAN Para Games he won three gold, one silver and three bronze
medals in Boccia as well as Track and Field events. He also participated in
the 2016 Brazil Paralympics.

About the photographer:
Pho Thar, 22, started his career as a photojournalist in 2016. He has been working for The
Standard Time Daily since 2017. His photo documentary “We are the Champions” was nominated at the 11th Yangon Photo Festival 2019, just before he was sent to jail in April 2019.
Pho Thar is also a member of the satirical poetry troupe Peacock Generation. He and his
team performed thangyat, a traditional art form that combines spoken word poetry, comedy
and dance during the Thingyan Festival (Myanmar New Year). They wore military uniforms
and made a thangyat satire about the military. The performers were found guilty of making
fun of the military under the notorious Penal Code Section 505(a), a vaguely worded law
often thrown at journalists and activists.
After 14 months in jail, Pho Thar was released from Insein Prison, Yangon, on June 26,
2020. As the Tatmadaw officials filed defamation charges in all the townships where the performance took place, five other members of the Peacock Generation were imprisoned. Su
Yadanar Myint was released on August 19 but Kay Khaing Tun, Zayar Lwin, Paing Ye Thu andPaing Phyo Min are still in jail.
Pai Phyo Min, aka Deyay, is now serving a six-year sentence with hard labour. Amnesty
International described these convictions as “outrageous”. Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty
International’s regional director, issued a statement: “It beggars belief that these young,brave people are behind bars for sharing videos and photos online. Their performances are
all about aspirations for a better future.”

Text by:
Pyay Kyaw Myint and Christophe Loviny (both: Yangon Photo Festival)

29

30

Southeast Asia Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Games

Politics and Sports Capitalism in theSoutheast Asian Games
Bonn Juego

The Southeast Asian Games has been
negatively politicised since the 1950s. It
has sported a complex interplay of colonialism, decolonisation, nationalism, geopolitics, patronage and capitalism. Repurposing it for the well-being of individual
athletes and the regional sporting culture
is long overdue. Yet, to depoliticise sports
toward positive purpose necessitates collective political action.

Introduction

Bonn Juego teaches
international development studies
at the University of Jyväskylä, inFinland’s Capital of Sport. He isa Filipino academic who has held
research fellowships and teaching
appointments at the Universities
of Aalborg, Copenhagen, Helsinki,
and City of Hong Kong. He has
recently authored “IPE Scholarship About Southeast Asia:
Theories of Development andState-Market-Society Relations”
in The Routledge Handbook to
Global Political Economy (2020).

The 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Gamesin the Philippines from 30 November to
11 December 2019 was the biggest sporting event ever held in the region. Yet whatshould have been a showcase of athletic
excellence became instead a reminder ofthe recurring political pestilence that has
plagued this biennial competition since
its 1959 inauguration. Controversies overthe host country’s alleged organisational
incompetence, corruption, politicking, andhuman rights violations overshadowed stories of victory, individual triumphs and teamrecords.1 Again, politics won over athletics.
News and images featuring incomplete
facilities and logistical mishaps abounded.
Online bickering between loyalists and critics of President Rodrigo Duterte spilled over
into public debate on the government’s
hosting performance. Elected politicians,
state officials, and politically connectedbusinessmen managed the Philippine SEA
Games Organising Committee, which is facing investigations for misappropriation of
the event’s USD 150 million budget, notably its lavish expenditures for the cauldron
and the grand opening and closing ceremonies. Then there were complaints from

activists about how the construction of amajor venue, the 50-hectare sports complex
within New Clark City, was used by the government and private investors to accelerate
the forced displacement of some 500 indigenous Aeta families.
The politicisation of sports (i.e., thestruggle for the allocation of power andresources between competing interest
groups in the sporting community) is not
exclusive to the SEA Games. This phenomenon is more pronounced in commercialised sports involving the exchange of bigmoney sourced from states, corporations,and individual capitalists, like the Olympics,
continental games, and many professional
leagues. But its prevalence is not an excuse
to normalise the commodification of thebodies and lives of athletes, or to continue
tolerating corrupt practices of organisersfrom the public and private sectors.
Since its foundation, the norms andconduct of the SEA Games have been governed by political, security, economic andbusiness considerations, rather than intercultural aspirations between neighbouring
countries. After being held 30 times, the SEA
Games is still in search of meaning and purpose.

Colonial sports
Sport is both an individual and social
endeavour. Individually, sport is the quest
to realise the maximum potential of thehuman will, mind and body. Socially, sportentails complex relationships between players of a game, concerned institutions andother stakeholders within the body politic.
The history of the SEA Games is very much

Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Gamesa story of political power relations, rather
than of memorable athletic achievements.
Sports politics, or the political captureof sports, in Southeast Asia has several
dimensions. From a historical perspective,the evolution of sports in the region has displayed distinctive features of colonialism,
decolonisation, geopolitics, nationalism,
patronage and capitalism.
First, “Western” sports were introducedby European and American colonisers inSoutheast Asia from the 16th century until
the 1940s. Through mediation by local elites,
imperial sports became tools to instil discipline and loyalty in the colonial subjects,
aside from their entertainment value forthe ruler and the ruled.2 In the early 20th
century, the US agenda in Asia, via its Philippine colony, incorporated amateur sports
into the “modernisation” doctrine, which
problematised the “backwardness” of Asiansocieties, politics, economies and cultures.
From 1911 to 1913, the American branch of
the Young Men’s Christian Association created the Far Eastern Championship Gamesand the Far Eastern Athletic Association,
which reorganised into the Asiad and the
Asian Games Federation after World War
II. Colonialism constituted a “mass-based
sportive citizenship training” with a certain“bio-political” aim to resolve “civilizational
deficits of East Asian concepts of masculinity” through sports “as a healthy, rational,
and scientific form of recreation” that could
stop Asian vices of “promiscuity, gambling,cock-fighting, and boozing.” 3 Colonial
sports promoted international games andphysical education as a significant part of
the “Western civilizing mission” to transition Asia into modernity, democracy, capitalism and “muscular Christianity.”4

Geo-politics
From the 1940s through the 1960s, newly
independent Asian countries adopted
sport programmes as part of their respective national identity-formation and nationbuilding processes. Discourse on sports“decolonisation” included concepts suchas Pan-Asianism, Asiatisation, and anticolonialism in the organisation of regional
games. Among Asia’s political elites, theseideas were interpreted differently as either
new patterns of “dependent relationships”
between former colonies and colonisers,
or as articulations of a “variety of nationalisms,” based upon ethnicity, state or anti-

Southeast Asia

imperialism.
Secondly, the politicised nature of the
SEA Games started with its precursor, theSoutheast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games,
established under the leadership of the
Olympic Council of Thailand in 1958 during the Third Asiad in Tokyo. Though sports
have served as a symbol of amity in theregionalism of contemporary Southeast
Asia, it was an interesting mixture of national
interests and friend/enemy distinctions
in geopolitics that initially defined SEAP’s
exclusivist membership. The decision ofThailand—as the pioneering host nationand overall administrator of the 1959 SEAP
Games—to make the inaugural spectacle
exclusive to its non-communist neighbours(i.e. Burma, Laos, Malaya, Singapore, andSouth Vietnam) and reject the participationof the more competitive sporting countries(i.e. Indonesia and the Philippines) “had thegoal of containing [North] Vietnamese communism” and “undoubtedly favoured Thailand’s athletes” – thus reflecting a “mode ofThai-centric, anticommunist regionalism
encompassing mainland Southeast Asia.”5
Only in 2003 did all the peninsular andinsular countries comprising Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) become
participants in the SEA Games, namely:
Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Discourse on sports “decolonisation” included
concepts such as Pan-Asianism, Asiatisation, andanti-colonialism…these ideas were interpreted differently as either new patterns of “dependent relationships” between former colonies and colonisers,
or as articulations of a “variety of nationalisms,”
based upon ethnicity, state or anti-imperialism.

Pursuit of national interest has beena persistent characteristic of ASEAN’s
regional sporting culture. Instead of fierce
competition between nations as in the
Olympics, the distinct norms of tolerant reciprocity and cooperative exchange
among participating states delineate the
SEA Games. For example, the host country
is given the privilege of selecting a list of
events that play to its advantage and allow it
to top the medal standings. This pragmatic
approach is aimed at securing funds for the
event, which are mostly appropriated from

31

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Southeast Asia Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Games

the host government’s national budget, tosustain the SEA Games.

Patronage and Clientelism
Thirdly, the politics of patronage and clientelism is a permanent fixture in the historyof sports in Southeast Asia. Business andpolitical elites act as patrons to their clientsamong athletes, fans, consumers and voters. Their influential involvement in sports
is present through various means: fromowning teams and clubs, and having sponsorship deals, in commercial sports (e.g., in
the old Philippine Basketball Associationand the new Malaysian Football League),to organising and bankrolling local tournaments and matches in vote-rich grassrootscommunities, especially during an electionseason. It is also often the case in the region
that national teams and athletes thrive onmonetary contributions from wealthy private and corporate benefactors, not necessarily on government funding.

Business and political elites act as patrons totheir clients among athletes, fans, consumers andvoters. Their influential involvement in sports ispresent through various means... national teams
and athletes thrive on monetary contributions
from wealthy private and corporate benefactors,
not necessarily on government funding.

Sport is woven into the fabric of society. It serves specific functions to different groups of people, though unequallyin terms of class relations. For instance,some of the favourite spectator sports in
Asia – like football, basketball, boxing andhorseracing – signify the pursuit of personal
ambition for athletes, a regular day job forstaff, or simple leisure for ordinary fans. On
the contrary, these games serve as pastimes,
gambling opportunities, entrepreneurial
ventures, tax credit strategies, or public relations occasions for sections of Asia’s elite.
Sports are also a battleground of opposing tendencies in society. There have been
historical moments when spectator sports
and celebrity athletes have exhibited political resistance, notably the refusal of the legendary boxer Mohammad Ali to serve in the
US military during the Vietnam War, the No
Room For Racism campaign in European

football leagues, and the recent support to
the Black Lives Matter movement in the
National Basketball Association. However,in Southeast Asia, sports are less likely toprovide a platform for opposition politics
than for powerful social forces to exercise
their patronage and clientelism.

Sports Capitalism
Alongside nationalism and patronage, thelogic of sports capitalism is shaping the
sporting culture in Southeast Asia’s emerging economies. Sports capitalism enables
unequal social relations whereby sports
generate profits for some while exploiting
others through alienation, commodificationand dispossession. The political economy ofsports capitalism has multiple aspects andcontradictory manifestations, which havecritical implications for the future of the SEA
Games and the evolving sports structure:
1. Liberalist Individualism. Sports capitalism exemplifies liberalist individualism– the ethos in which individuality, competitiveness and personal excellence against all
institutionalised odds are celebrated. In thehegemonic US-style capitalism, in whichsocial inequalities are peddled as a naturalorder, sports is promoted as a special sphere
where even the poor, black descendants ofslaves are qualified to compete in pursuit ofgreatness, despite lacking inherited property from rich parents, or the institutional
advantages of white privilege, simply byhaving individual determination, skill andtalent. The same individualistic path to success, like the rags-to-riches story of Filipino
boxer Manny Pacquiao, is being popularisedin the highly stratified and class-divided
societies of Southeast Asia.
2. Inequalities. Under conditions ofcapitalism, there are stark inequalities in
the allocation of value in sports. Thoughstar players of spectator sports are paid
astronomical salaries and talent fees, they
may still be considered as workers for theowners of companies who profit from theirwork, and as labourers whose incomes arelegitimately earned through their perceptible hard work and professionalism. In teamsports, individual excellence is praised,
while the game is presented as a processof teamwork. However, lower-tier workers
who significantly contribute to the sports
production process are often limited to subsistence or starvation wages.
3. Alienation and Commodification.

Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian GamesOne of the contradictions of sport as ahuman and social activity is that, while itoffers uplifting narratives about humanity, it also has painful stories of horrendous
bodily abuse and attendant social pathologies. This includes the doping of athletes, aviolent subculture of hooliganism between
fans, and the sexual objectification andassault of promotional models. Discrimination based on gender, race, religion andother identities is also prevalent. Humanstrength, speed, creativity and elegance inthe physical art and science of sports arecommoditised to profit a few elites. Sports
capitalism turns games into hyper-competition, play into corporate business, players
into moving marketing ads, record performance into market value, the human body
into a self-destructive machine, and athletes and workers into commodities.
4. Negative Nationalism and Profitability. In international games, the expression of nationalism may be healthy to theextent that supporting a national team will
not engender extreme attitudes of jingoism,
chauvinism, or mass hysteria oriented towinning over a perceived enemy at all cost.
However, sports capitalism suggests that
there are profitable opportunities in competing nationalistic loyalties. In this sense,
sports nationalism and capitalism can havedeleterious effects on the values of civility
and sportsmanship.
5. Financialisation. Sports capitalism
is clearly manifested in the way popularsports in the world today are sustained, connected and facilitated by digital technology
in the global gambling industry. The opportunity to bet gives fans a financial stake inthe outcome of a game. Oftentimes, betting
in organised sports generates unfair behaviour and dishonest activities like game-fixing that undermine the integrity of sports.
Moreover, sports betting and gambling areused as channels through which transnational crimes such as money launderingand other illicit financial transactions arecarried out.
6. Labour Exploitation. Hosting international organised sports is mainly business,notwithstanding the host nation’s agenda
for cultural projection. The oft-repeatedeconomic rationale for a host country is
the opportunity to build infrastructure andamass foreign direct investment, but it has
become evident that mega sporting events
have also left behind white elephants andunsustainable sovereign indebtedness.
On top of the extravagant financial cost to

Southeast Asia

societies, multinational games have often
entailed poor labour conditions in the construction of sports venues and facilities. The
occupational hazards of erecting innovativearchitectural projects, especially stadiums
for the Olympics and FIFA World Cups, haveresulted in the death and injury of workers.6

This experience in the construction of a state-ofthe-art sports complex and athletic stadium signifies how modern sporting activities entail social
exclusion, and specifically, how these investments
are deeply entangled with the interests of government officials, real estate developers, architecture
firms, and private investors in appropriating theconcept of urban sustainability.

7. Accumulation by Dispossession. The
accumulation of wealth through sports capitalism is usually accomplished by vested
interests through coercion or co-optation
to get the consent of the vulnerable yet
rightful owners of the commons. This wascoherently shown in 2018 when the USD 80
million Athletics Stadium of the New Clark
City Sports Complex was being constructed
as a central hub of the 30th SEA Games. It
was reported that at least 300 families were
initially evicted from their homes and soonafter, during the Games itself, some 500
families from the Aeta tribe were served
eviction notices by the government.7 In
effect, the brazen land-grab and displacement of the indigenous Aeta people, whohave a collective history of exclusive andcontinuous possession of their ancestral
lands, was actualised in the name of “inclusive, green and sustainable development” todecongest Metropolitan Manila by building
a new “smart city.”8 The indigenous people
were also deprived of their traditional livelihoods and, to add insult to injury, some ofthem were co-opted to work on precarious
and contractual terms doing menial jobs
such as cleaning and security to maintainand protect this green urbanism project.
Hence, this experience in the constructionof a state-of-the-art sports complex and athletic stadium signifies how modern sporting
activities entail social exclusion, and specifically, how these investments are deeply
entangled with the interests of government
officials, real estate developers, architecture
firms, and private investors in appropriating the concept of urban sustainability.

33

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Southeast Asia Politics and Sports Capitalism in the Southeast Asian Games

Depoliticising Sports
After sixty years, the SEA Games needs toface its existential crisis head-on by reexamining its nationalistic orientation andits current predisposition to the dehumanising essence of sports capitalism. On paper,
the charter of the SEA Games Federation
asserts a commitment to the life philosophyof “Olympism” based on the core values of
excellence, friendship and respect. In reality, however, the systemic politicisation of
the SEA Games is in contrast to the Olympic
Movement’s principle of “political neutrality.” Likewise, the persistence of negative
nationalism in Southeast Asia’s sports festival and the vicious encroachment of inhumane capitalism into the world sporting
structure are in conflict with the desirable
goal of the Olympics “to place sport at theservice of the harmonious developmentof humankind, with a view to promoting apeaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
Repurposing the SEA Games to make ita meaningful and relevant sporting association is long overdue. While the SEA Gameshas been politicised from the very beginning, its depoliticisation towards positivechange would require an intense political act. In particular, it would necessitate
political will from decision-makers and/or
an organised political movement among
athletes, sports fans, taxpayers and active
citizens.
There is scope for redefining the missionof the SEA Games and the purpose of sports
for the peoples of Southeast Asia. The multisports events of the SEA Games should
embody a healthy mix of cooperation andcompetition, teamwork and individuality,internationalism and patriotism. ASEAN,
with the willing participation of all its member states, can forge a unique and humanist
sports identity in its regionalisation process, in which the SEA Games provides anopportune space and moment to realise thebroader objectives of human flourishing,community solidarity, democratic governance, social justice, and ecological sustainability. After all, sport is a contested humanand social activity – as such, it is an arena
where political struggles against exploitative, exclusionary and destructive dynamics along class, racial, gender and ecologicaldimensions can be advanced.

1

Ana P. Santos. 2019. “SEA Games: Medals andcontroversies for the Philippines.” Al Jazeera, 11
December 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.aljazeera.
com/news/2019/12/sea-games-ends-medals-controversyphilippines-191211050407590.html; Jodesz Gavilan.
“What do we know about SEA Games 2019’s Phisgoc?”
Rappler, 28 November 2019. Retrieved from: https://rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/things-know-sea-games-2019phisgoc.

2

Charles Little. 2010. “South-East Asia.” In Routledge Companion to Sports History, edited by Steven
W. Pope and John Nauright. London: Routledge,
587–598; Lou Antolihao. 2015. Playing with the Big
Boys: Basketball, American Imperialism, and Subaltern Discourse in the Philippines. Lincoln: Universityof Nebraska Press.
See the seminal research by Stefan Huebner. 2016.
Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern
Asia. Singapore: National University of Singapore
Press.
Huebner, pp. 261–277.
Simon Creak. 2017. “Eternal friends and erstwhile
enemies: The regional sporting community of theSoutheast Asian Games.” TRaNS: Trans-Regionaland -National Studies of Southeast Asia 5(1):147–172.
See reports from global union federations thathave followed the construction of mega sporting
infrastructure in recent years, for example, ITUC.
2015. “Qatar: Profit and Loss – Counting the cost ofmodern-day slavery in Qatar: What price is freedom?”
Brussels: International Trade Union Confederation;
BWI. 2018. “Foul Play: FIFA’s failures at the 2018
World Cup Russia.” Geneva: Building and Wood
Workers’ International; BWI. 2019. “The Dark Sideof the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.” Geneva: Building and Wood Workers’ International.
Bernice Beltran. 2020. “The Philippines’ ’Smart City’Threatens Tribal Displacement.” The Diplomat, 8January 2020. Retrieved from: https://thediplomat.
com/2020/01/philippines-smart-city-threatens-tribaldisplacement/
Tony La Viña and Joy Reyes. 2019. “Aetas and
New Clark City: Trampling on human rights ofour first peoples.” Rappler, 20 December 2019.
Retrieved from: https://www.rappler.com/thoughtleaders/246881-analysis-aetas-new-clark-city-trampling-on-human-rights

3

4
5

6

7

8

* A longer version of this article is available atth.boell.org, or scan QR code below.

Coming apart at the Seams Cambodia

Coming apart at the Seams: Why Women
Workers in the Cambodian Garment Industry
Need a Sporting Chance at Equality
Rachana Bunn

While Cambodian women’s presence in theinternational sporting world may currently
be limited, they are highly represented
behind the scenes as the cornerstone of thecountry’s garment industry, a significant
supplier of global sportswear and footwear.
Yet poor respect for human rights, discriminatory employment conditions, and asexist workplace culture are combining to
put the hundreds of thousands engaged insuch factories at risk.

It should have been the highlight of theyear’s sporting calendar until the Corona
crisis sprinted into action. But as the debate
goes on as to when, if ever,1 the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, will go ahead, many women in
Cambodia will remain firmly focused on
the world of physical exercise. They are theessential workforce racing under testing
conditions to drive forward the country’s
garment factories. The factories that supply major sportswear and footwear brands,
among others, with the “cool gear” they sellaround the globe.
A series of structural changes made to
Cambodia’s economy in the 1990s, coupledwith bilateral and multilateral trade agreements,2 have given birth to the developmentof the garment sector in the form it exists
today. Often referred to as the “backbone” ofthe national economy, since the industry’s
expansion in the 2010s, the garment sector
has grown to employ some 700,000 workers,
among whom 90% are rural migrant women.
Dominated by foreign investors from
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, with the majority of products exported
to western markets,3 the sector has become acrucial contributor to Cambodia’s impressive
rate of economic growth in recent years.4

However, the gender-based issues thatmany of these workers face, in particular sexual harassment, discrimination in
the employment process, and childcare,require much more attention in the arenaof equal opportunities. Indeed, swift action
is needed by government and corporate
actors to address the discrimination andlabour practices that so often hold womenback from realising full empowerment andself-determination.

Pervasive Sexual Harassment
Recent research on women garment workers in Cambodia indicates high levels of
workplace sexual harassment, with women
regularly reporting to their union representatives that they faced harassment not
only by their employers or supervisors, butalso by peer male workers. Such women
also report sexual harassment outside theworkplace as a regular and daily risk, especially on the way home from factories. Thesefindings are corroborated by an increasing
volume of published studies on sexual harassment in the garment industry, in Cambodia and elsewhere.5 For instance, a report
released by Care International in 2017 foundthat nearly one-third of women workers in
Cambodia had been sexually harassed attheir workplace in the past 12 months.
Despite the common occurrence of sexual harassment in factories and in broader
Cambodian society, the country does nothave specific legislation to deal with suchharassment or sex discrimination. As such,
efforts are underway by women’s rights civilsociety actors to amend legislation that cur-

Rachana Bunn holds undergraduate degrees in educationand law, and a master's degree ininternational development fromthe City University of Hong Kong.
She is a co-founder and executive
director of Klahaan Organization,
an independent, intersectional
feminist organisation that uses
research and digital-based
campaigning to contribute to thedevelopment of a fair, just, andequal society in which Cambodian
women of all backgrounds enjoy
their human rights. Klahaan in
Khmer means “brave”.

35

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Cambodia Coming apart at the Seams© Klahaan, all rights reserved

Stating that "women's rights are human rights", these female workers request the establishment of preschools incommunities and childcare centers in factories during a protest in Phnom Penh.

rently exists to bring it in line with the International Labour Organization’s Declaration
on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work.6
In addition, inadequate legal protection
and subsequently low levels of prosecutions,combined with legal loopholes, the lack ofgender equality culture, and poor respectfor human rights have enabled corporate
actors to pay less attention to addressing
sexual violence at the workplace. This has
resulted in repeated petitions demanding
resolutions to address 11 priority problems
affecting the lives of all Cambodian workers.7
While sexual harassment is often seen
as a less serious crime compared with physical violence, harassment frequently results
in prolonged psychological trauma for survivors. In the case of women workers, thishinders their ability to perform their workand subsequently affects their productivity
levels. More importantly, many such women
have also spoken of the lasting impacts ofsexual harassment on their mental health,well-being, and personal relationships.
Employers should recognise and act
upon their human rights obligations under
the UN Guiding Principles on Businessand Human Rights to respect, protect, andremedy any human rights abuses. Growing
consumer awareness of labour rights issues
and a desire to purchase clothing from suppliers that are certified as providing ethicalemployment to their factory workers also
provide a business imperative among buyers and suppliers to ensure that workers
enjoy a safe working environment. including taking steps, in close collaboration withgovernment and civil society, to proactively
prevent and address sexual harassment ingarment factories.

Fixed-term duration
contracts and pregnancyrelated discrimination
There are two types of labour contracts
specified in the Cambodian Labour Law:
fixed-term duration contracts (FDCs) andundetermined duration contracts (UDCs),8but in reality the former are commonly
offered to workers in the garment industry
and the latter rarely used.
While the use of fixed-term duration
contracts has affected all garment workers,
the severity is reportedly vastly different
between men and women workers. Women
workers have long reported experiencing discrimination at various stages of theemployment process, including during hiring, promotion, and termination. A union
activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that many garment factories opted to hire women workers under
fixed-term duration contracts so that fac-Coming apart at the Seams Cambodia

tory owners did not need to renew the women’s employment contracts if and when they
became visibly pregnant. The length of suchcontracts varies between two weeks to one
month, or one month to three months, or
three months to six months, or nine months,
or one year. She further noted that most
women workers have been working continually for over two years, and in some cases
longer than five years. Yet employers continued to hire them on fixed-term duration
contracts.
In addition, forced overtime and thequota production system have been seen
as contributing factors in compelling many
pregnant women workers to leave their job.
Working overtime is a common practice andalso a tacit expectation of each worker from
employers, especially during the high season and prior to the outbreak of the Corona
crisis that has slowed market demand.
Many pregnant women workers haveclaimed that they have been forced to workovertime, without adequate breaks to rest
or use washrooms and those who refused
to take on such long hours reportedly faced
retaliation from supervisors.9 This is in contravention of the Labour Law, which stipulates that “the number of hours worked byworkers of either sex cannot exceed eight
hours per day, or 48 hours per week” and,including paid overtime, the hours of work
per day cannot exceed 10 hours.
According to the Labour Law, fixedterm duration contracts can be renewed
one or more times, but cannot surpass the
maximum total duration of two years. Any
violation of this rule leads the contract toautomatically become an undetermined
duration contract. However, in 2010, Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational
Training issued an instruction on determination of the types of employment contracts to clarify the matter. This stipulated
that the maximum duration of the fixedterm duration contract could be up to four
years, including the first contract and subsequent renewal.10
The use of fixed-term duration contracts has hugely impacted workers’ rights,
to the extent that they are even unable toform unions or join existing ones, as theuse of such contracts makes it easier for
employers to “let go” workers active in theunion. When employment is more precarious, workers are less likely to “rock the boat”
by demanding their rights to safe working
conditions.

Unpaid Care Work andChildcare Amenities
As documented in reports, over 60% of
garment factories are located within or inclose proximity to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s
capital city, and the rest are situated in bordering provinces.11 This geographical distribution means that many women workers
have had to migrate from their respective
provinces to be closer to their work, living
in a small shared rented room with theirpeers.12 The situation has forced women
workers, including new mothers, to leave
young babies and older children with theirmothers in their hometowns, only visiting atweekends and/or public holidays.

Cambodia’s Garment Sector
Cambodia’s garment, textile and footwear sector overall
had until recently appeared to be set for further expansion, with double-digit growth of 19% (footwear) and
17% (garment and textiles) over 2018, according to
Cambodian government figures cited in a recent International Labour Organization Bulletin.20 Its then share of
Cambodia’s merchandise exports was 74%. The EU andthe US were Cambodia’s most important trading partners in the sector, and the country was the world’s ninth
largest garment producer. However, 2020 has brought two
major landscape changes: the Corona crisis that has cut
through demand in its main markets and seen thousandsof Cambodian factory workers laid off; and withdrawalof access to the EU’s Everything But Arms tariff-freeagreement. Under the agreement, countries can lose suchaccess if they do not comply with core human and labour
rights.21 Such access was temporarily withdrawn for someCambodian exports, including garments and footwear, effective 12 August 2020.22

On-going efforts are being made by the
Cambodian government to enhance theaccessibility, affordability, and quality ofearly childhood services. These efforts arereflected in article 186 of the 1997 Cambodian Labour Law13 and the adoption of
the National Policy on Early Childhood
Care and Development in 2010, which led
to development and implementation of
the 2014-18 National Action Plan on Early
Childhood Care and Development by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.
The plan’s vision was that “all young chil-

37

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Cambodia Coming apart at the Seams

Kick-starting the Future
One Cambodian woman to take major steps away from traditional norms is internationaltaekwondo champion Sorn Seavmey, who has travelled from teenage garment factory
worker, where she sewed alongside her mother, to become the country’s first Asian Games
gold medallist in 2014. She was also chosen as flag-bearer for Cambodia’s delegation at the
opening ceremonies for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and 2018 Asian Games.
Born in 1995, just as the garment industry started to emerge in Cambodia, the starathlete became the focus of an Olympic Channel online video series that explored her
journey to the 2016 Olympics.19 In these programmes, she recalls how her family andSouth Korean coach pushed her to aspire to a different way of life, and to persevere inachieving it. She, in turn, is now inspiring women and girls in Cambodia to think beyond
home, factory, and customary gender roles.

dren, from conception to less than six yearsof age, especially disadvantaged, vulnerable and poor children, shall be provided
with care and development services”.14 A
new National Action Plan for 2019-23 is also
being developed.
However, such a promise of childcare
provision has yet to materialise. On the
one hand, this is due to deeply ingrained
unjust social norms and unequal genderroles placed on Cambodian women, who
are traditionally expected to take care ofeveryone in the family, especially children
and the elderly, whether the women workor stay at home. Women themselves usuallystrongly internalise such expectations, and
it is only relatively recently that mainstream
women’s rights advocates have begun pushing hard on issues related to equal parenting
responsibilities and the gendered burden of
unpaid care work. On the other hand, poor
and unevenly applied law enforcement enables many factory owners to circumvent
their legal obligations under the Labour Law.
Many factory owners have failed to set up a
fully functioning day-care facility in factory
premises or provide a substantial financial
allowance to women workers to place theirchildren in private childcare centres.
Furthermore, the Cambodian childcare
landscape operated by state and private
corporate actors is still limited – even if
growing – and most childcare centres concentrate on provision for a privileged few. A
2019 survey conducted by Planete Enfants& Developement (PE&D),15 a French NGO,
highlighted that the average individual
monthly fees for childcare service in Phnom

Hun Thnot on Wikimedia

Penh were around USD250. Only a few providers targeted middle-income families,
charging around USD150, while others
concentrated on rich districts, targetinginternational families and setting fees of
up to USD400 per month per child. As such,even the cheapest childcare is an unaffordable expense for many working families in
the garment sector, with a minimum wageof USD190 in 2020.16 The majority of low
and middle-income women therefore relyon their mothers or other women relatives
to take care of children while those withoutfamily capital for childcare have to leave
the labour market to take care of their newborn child.
It is thus imperative that top brands,
including sports brands such as Adidas andPUMA, and other major clothing chains,such as H&M and Marks & Spencer, whichhave been sourcing their products from
Cambodia and making gigantic profits
from the Cambodian workforce, look at thismatter as a top priority. As cited in a recent
World Bank report,17 research shows that alack of childcare options for workers cantranslate into high employee turnover andabsenteeism, and low work satisfaction andproductivity.
To help the situation, the World Bank
has undertaken a community-based childcare initiative, funded by the Japan Social
Development Fund and implemented by
PE&D in collaboration with 22 garment factories across Cambodia.18 This is expected
to create an opportunity for women to go towork and provide sufficient care to children.
A similar type of childcare service should

Coming apart at the Seams Cambodia

also be made available in all factories. However, this will need cooperation from thegovernment and employers.

Looking ahead
The Cambodian government needs to takeswift and decisive action to protect garment workers, who are producing goods forinternational apparel brands. This meansamendments to existing legislation, thedrafting of new specialist legislation, andthe upholding of international humanrights treaty obligations. Another crucial
action is to strictly regulate and regularly
monitor the working conditions and environment inside garment factories.
On the employers’ side, garment sector
employers, buyers, and other actors should
build on recent efforts, such as the WorldBank’s childcare project, to enable workers
in Cambodia to strike a better work-life balance while improving child development.
Supporting childcare can also help companies enhance their reputation with international buyers and access higher-value
markets.
Regarding harassment, complaint
mechanisms that are available and accessible to factory staff, and other initiatives,
such as a women’s contact point, should
be initiated and a comprehensive training
package rolled out, accompanied by clear
guidelines that are comprehensively communicated.
Employers who violate the labour rights
of garment workers must face swift penalties to reduce the culture of impunity, andthe unethical use of fixed-term duration
contracts must cease immediately.
In this way, Cambodian women might
not only find a way to better garment factory working conditions but also the confidence to strive for other ways to race ahead.

* A longer version of this article is available
at https://www.klahaan.org/publications,or scan QR code below.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/20/
business/majority-japanese-firms-against-holdingolympics-2021-according-poll/
2
The Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and theEverything but Arms Preferential Trade Agreement
3
The United States of America (24%), European
Union (46%) and other (30%) in 2017.
4
Shah, 2010; Hun, 2008
5
Care International 2017, The Solidarity Center, andthe International Labour Office6
https://www.ilo.org/declaration/thedeclaration/
textdeclaration/lang--en/index.htm
7
https://www.klahaan.org/take-action
8
Article 66 of the 1997 Cambodian Labour Law
9Human Rights Watch, Work Faster or Get Out, page 8,2015/10
https://www.camfeba.com/legal/Announcemet.%20
Notification%20(LL)/2019/Instruction_on_
Determiniation_of_Employment_contract_Eng.pdf
11
https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/cambodiasgarment-manufacturing-industry/
12
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/76384/garmentworker-housing-survey-disputed/
13
Article 186 of the 1997 Cambodian Labor Law:
Managers of enterprises employing a minimum of
one hundred women or girls shall set up, within theirestablishments or nearby, a nursing room and acrèche (day-care center). If the company is not able
to set up a crèche on its premises for children overeighteen months of age, female workers can place
their children in any crèche and the charges shall be
paid by the employer.
14
National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care andDevelopment 2014-2018, p.1
15
https://planete-eed.org/en/the-association/history/
16
https://cambodianess.com/article/garment-workersto-get-us190-minimum-wage-in-202017
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/
en/404631569817435376/pdf/Project-InformationDocument-PID-Community-based-Childcare-forGarment-Factory-Workers-Project-P171063.pdf
18
https://planete-eed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/
CBCC-project-summary_2020.pdf
19
https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/original-series/
detail/cambodia-s-search-for-glory/cambodia-ssearch-for-glory-season-season-1/episodes/restoringcambodian-pride/?uxreference=playlist
20
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/--ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_714915.pdf
21
https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/12/cambodiawill-no-longer-benefit-from-the-european-unions-spreferential-trade-program
22
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/
en/IP_20_1469

1

39

40

India From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi Recaptured the Public Imagination

From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi
Recaptured the Public Imagination
Shripoorna Purohit

The team sport of kabaddi has managed
to resurface as part of Indian pop culture
through big money deals and a touch of
Bollywood bling. However, its history has
deep nationalistic roots. The continuous
chanting without drawing breath, theraw aggression, and the grappling on thefloor helped in scripting brief interludes
in India’s Olympic history and freedom
struggle as well. A sport which was left inthe shadows is now once again becoming
part of popular folklore with the potential to affect societal development.

Shripoorna Purohit is a sports
management professional, currently
working at GoSports Foundationin India. Having been bitten by the
sports bug very young, he has been
deeply involved in India’s sporting
scene. Combining his passions
for communications and sport,
Shripoorna took up sports journalism
before eventually migrating towards
management. He now leverages his
talents to help build India’s sporting
ecosystem, to turn the nation into thenext sporting superpower.

Stand outside any Pro Kabaddi League (PKL)
venue and you can hear the roaring of thecrowds, all the way to the streets. Take a walkinside and you will find everyone fidgetingin their seats with bouts of excitement andnerves. You will then notice seven burly men
standing on one half of the court looking
mean and tenacious. Another player, known
as the raider, stands at the halfway line. The
raider bends down, touches the white lines,
quickly touches his chest and forehead andsteps into the opposition’s half. “Kabaddi,
kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi…”, the compulsory nonstop chant can be heard faintly
amidst the noise echoing in the stadium.
The raider moves deeper into the court andcrosses the baulk line to ensure the validityof his raid. He then prowls from one side of
the court to the other, briskly, on his toes,
staying in no spot longer than a few seconds.
He swings his hand, attempting to tag oneof his opponents, and immediately lunges
back towards safety before he is encircled
and pinned down to the floor. If he makes itback to his half of the court, the battle is won
and a point is secured. If he doesn’t make it
back, the other team clinches a point.

That is the game of kabaddi, a sportwith no supporting document declaring its
origins. Its roots, however, can definitely befound in India. One theory says it was firstplayed in the southern state of Tamil Nadu,
and was called “kai-piddi” (holding hands,
in Tamil). Another theory suggests that thegame originated in the northwestern stateof Punjab, where it was practiced to keep
the men fit and ready to defend against
enemy attacks.
Another popular theory connects the
sport to the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata.
Elements symbolic of kabaddi can be foundin the story of 16-year-old Abhimanyu fighting through the “Chakravyuh” (a maze of
warriors standing ready to fight in sevenlayers of concentric circles). The similarity between this instance and the sport of
kabaddi is the uncanny unfairness that isdeeply embedded in the two. One against
seven. No other sport can boast of such a(no) contest.
In Buddhist scriptures it is also said
that the revered Gautama Buddha played
kabaddi to develop physical strength andmental fortitude, and to practice control
over his breathing.
However, despite so many theories
depicting the sport’s Indian roots, not many
considered it to be an actual sport. Kabaddi
was thought of as a leisure game for “pehalwans” (amateur wrestlers) and young boys
in villages.
Surprisingly, despite the patriarchal
character of the country, women wereencouraged to take part in the game soonafter the All India Kabaddi Federation (nowknown as the Amateur Kabaddi Federationof India) was established post-independence. This liberal and forward thinking back

From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi Recaptured the Public Imaginationin 1955 helped to empower and promote
Indian women in sport, eventually with
global impact.

Kabaddi, Olympics, andNationalism
Kabaddi became a popular physical activity among the youth during the British Raj
thanks to an institution named the Shree
Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak (HVP) Mandal, in the town of Amaravati back in 1914.
The objective of the establishment was
to promote physical education, at a time
when the public was generally apathetic
towards physical well-being. It was a challenge though, as such institutions wereconsidered hot spots for anti-British revolutionary movements, and thus viewed
with suspicion by the British. The colonial
establishment surely understood the intricate relationship between sport and politics,
and the power of sport in bringing people
together for a larger cause.
Traditional Indian sports found themselves in the global limelight during the 1936
Berlin Olympics when Shidhnath Kane, vicepresident of both the HVPM and the Indian
Olympic Association (IOA), expressed aninterest in bringing a group of pehalwans
to perform at the Olympics. The Indians'
kabaddi performance at the International
Physical Education Students Congress andtheir display during the Olympics brought
extensive coverage in the international media.
Shidhnath's son, Padmakar Kane,
shared how the HVPM members disregarded the anthem played for the “official”
contingent during a banquet organised by
the host country. “Individual teams rose to

their feet and remained standing for theduration of their song. Yet again our selfrespect was challenged, as the Indian contingent stood up to the British anthem,”says Padmakar. Noticing that the HVPM
members did not stand up, the officials
intervened. “The German Education Minister Bernhard Rust asked my father why theirgroup did not rise. He replied that they considered ‘Vande Mataram’ their anthem. Rust
asked if they were carrying a recording withthem; they said yes. That evening, ‘Vande
Mataram’ was played at the Olympics banquet ceremony,” recounted Padmakar.

The attempt to standardise the sport and createa universal rulebook can be seen as ... an effort
towards popularising kabaddi.

This event linked the physical education system with the national independence movement, which had by then gained
momentum through the non-cooperationand civil disobedience movements of
the 1920s and 1930s. Indian gymnasiums
became meeting venues, and even hosted
important figures like MK Gandhi, Motilal
Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Rajendra Prasad. When Gandhi raised awarenessof the importance of physical education,
it helped the Mandal spread across thecountry and conjoin their cause with theindependence movement. Thus a deeprooted sense of nationalism and patriotism
attached to the sport of kabaddi.
Unfortunately, India’s rise to dominance in hockey and cricket overshadowed
kabaddi, and the sport was all but forgot-

India

41

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India From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi Recaptured the Public Imagination

DiplomatTesterMan on Wikimedia

The Finals of the Delhi State Kabaddi Champions in 2017.

ten. To date, the 1936 spectacle remains the
only time kabaddi was demonstrated on the
Olympic stage. The sport is virtually nonexistent in non-Asian countries. It is playedin only 34 countries; the official requirement for an Olympic sport is that it is playedin 75 countries across four continents. In
this respect, the sport has a long way to go
and is unlikely to become prominent in thenear future.

The key to the spread of kabaddi across the globe,
however, lies in the Indian community and diaspora.

Indianness andInternationalism
The key to the spread of kabaddi across theglobe, however, lies in the Indian community and diaspora, be it in nations as close
as South Korea, Japan, Pakistan or Bangladesh, or as far away as the United Kingdom,
Poland and the United States.
“It is now well accepted that sports are
intimately linked to the complex politics of colonialism, decolonisation andnationalism,” writes Joseph S Alter in his
paper, ‘Kabaddi, a National Sport of India:
The Internationalism of Nationalism andthe Foreignness of Indianness’. As a sport,
kabaddi has often been compared to otherphysical contact sports such as the Rugby
Sevens. However, the major differentiator
between the two – barring the dimensional
differences of the playing field – is the Indianness that is innate to kabaddi.
This Indianness lies in the fact that,
despite various versions of it being played
across the country since colonial times,
under different names with varying rulebooks, the crux of the sport remains thesame. Another aspect is its “theoretical andpractical links” with the ancient Indianpractice of yoga, thereby “making it not justan Indian sport, but an important featureof Indian culture linked to one of the mostdistinctive features of Indian civilisation,”
writes Alter. Interestingly, he also notesthat in outlining regulations for the sport,
CV Rao in 1971 claimed that holding one’s
breath was a mechanical technique thatwas introduced to limit the time per raid,
and had no association with yoga.
Even the attempt to standardise thesport and create a universal rulebook canbe seen as a colonial touch that has left
its mark on the game, as well as an effort
towards popularising kabaddi. Despite
being eclipsed towards the end of the millennium by India’s outstanding performance in the mighty colonial sports ofhockey and cricket, kabaddi did manage tocreate a small place for itself on the international stage. The International Kabaddi
Federation re-started the Kabaddi World

From Mud to Mat: How Kabaddi Recaptured the Public Imagination

Cup in 2016, with earlier games held in 2004
and 2007. Several non-Asian countries – theUnited States, Australia, Poland, Argentina,
and Kenya – were represented in the 2016
event.

The Pro Kabaddi League(PKL)
The advent of the league system in India
began in 2008 with the Indian Premier
League, a franchise cricket tournament that
attracted the biggest names from across theglobe. The success of this celebrity-filled
tournament made stakeholders in othersports sit up and take notice, giving thema public blueprint on how to market theirsport. A few years later, almost all mainstream sports had a league of their own.
However, almost no one imagined thata league based on an indigenous traditional
sport would become the second most popular league in the country. Repackaged andrebranded, kabaddi recaptured the public
imagination once again. A country that had
taken little notice of the gold medals won
at Asian Games or World Championships
suddenly was learning the techniques andstrategies of kabaddi.
In this author’s opinion, the real drawof the PKL was the sentiment attached tothe sport. Many of us had played kabaddi
at some point in our lives, mostly in school.
It struck a chord deep in our hearts, andwatching it aroused a sense of nostalgia andwistfulness. It may have been a different setof rules in a completely different environment, but the crux of the sport remained
intact. Here was our childhood, slightly
rehashed, playing out on our televisionscreens.
In this author’s opinion, kabaddi has apromising future. In rural India, where there
are major cultural stigmas, taboos, and stereotypes, the sport and its athletes can serve
as vehicles for social change. Given its popularity with the rural masses, kabaddi canspread important messages.
Lastly, the conundrum over a binary
outlook towards the sport, the Indianness
versus the internationalism of kabaddi, canbe put to rest. Modernisation across theglobe is a mixture of past and present, andsimilarly kabaddi has found the right balance between its rich cultural past and themodern requirements of mass appeal, fastpaced action, and celebrity bling, in order toensure that its legacy will continue.

Further reading
Chaudhary, Vivek. 2018. Kabaddi by
Nature. New Delhi: Palimpsest Publishers.
Gole, YA. 1978. Handbook on Kabaddi.
Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association.
Alter, Joseph S. 2000. “Kabaddi, a
National Sport of India: The Internationalism of Nationalism and theForeignness of Indianness.” In Games,
Sports and Cultures, edited by Noel
Dyck. Oxford: Berg.

1. Banerjee, Sudeshna. 2017. “History and Origin of
Kabaddi.” Sportskeeda. 27 July, 2017https://www.sportskeeda.com/kabaddi/history-andorigin-kabaddi
2. Wikipedia. 2019. “Women’s Kabaddi Challenge.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Kabaddi_
Challenge
3. HVP Mandal. https://www.hvpm.org/About/History.
htm
4. Kamath, Amit. 2016. “The Forgotten Story of
Kabaddi’s Tryst with Hitler, the Olympics.”
Hindustan Times. 20 October 2016. https://www.
hindustantimes.com/other-sports/the-forgotten-storyof-kabaddi-s-tryst-with-hitler-the-olympics/storyXE8Vtgk99UEm7T8DZn32uN.html
5. Jaisinghani, Bella. 2012. “When Hitler Awarded
Amravati Pehelwans. The Times of India. 22
July 2012. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
india/When-Hitler-awarded-Amravati-pehelwans/
articleshow/15085448.cms
6. Pradhan, Snehal. 2018. “How an Indian Ensured
that India Didn’t Win the Asian Kabaddi Gold for theFirst Time Ever. Economic Times. 25 August 2018.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/sports/
how-an-indian-ensured-that-india-didnt-win-theasian-kabaddi-gold-for-the-first-time-ever/articleshow/65538291.cms?from=mdr
7. Gehlot, Saransh. 2017. “The Birth and Rise of Polish
Kabaddi – How Abhishek Sharma Overcame
Insurmountable Odds to Start a Kabaddi Revolution
in Poland.” Sportskeeda. 17 February 2017.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/kabaddi/birthrise-polish-kabaddi-abhishek-sharma-overcameinsurmountable-odds-start-kabaddi-revolution-poland
8. Malvania, Urvi. 2014. “Pro Kabaddi is 2nd-mostViewed Tournament.” Business Standard.
9 August 2014. https://www.business-standard.com/
article/companies/pro-kabaddi-is-2nd-most-viewedtournament-114080900493_1.html
9. Bansal, Aman. 2019. “How Popular is Kabaddi
Outside of Asia.” Sports Mirchi. 12 March 2019.
https://www.sportsmirchi.com/how-popular-iskabaddi-outside-of-asia/

India

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Afghanistan

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow
their Dreams
An interview with Zainab Hussaini

A pioneering skateboarding NGO is building child-friendly urban spaces in conflictaffected cities and widening young people's opportunities.
What is Skateistan? And your current role?
Skateistan is a non-profit international skateboarding and education
organisation founded in Afghanistan by Australian skateboarder andresearcher Oliver Percovich in 2008. The NGO’s first Skate School wasestablished in the country’s capital, Kabul, in 2009 and it expanded
to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 2012. Skateistan has also established
Skate Schools in other countries, namely Cambodia and South Africa.
I am the country manager for Afghanistan. With further plans toopen in Bamyan, my responsibilities will involve coordination andalignment of resources for the country’s Skate Schools, given they arelocated in three different areas.

How does Skateistan reach out to Afghanistan’s young people?

Zainab Hussaini
Zainab Hussaini joined
Skateistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif
Skate School in Afghanistan
as an education coordinator in
2013. She went on to become
the school’s programmes officer
in 2015 and general manager in2018 before taking up her current
position as country manager.
Hussaini is an ambassador for
Free to Run, and was the firstwoman in Afghanistan to run amarathon. She was also the first
Afghan to run an ultra-marathon(250km), which she undertook in
the Gobi Desert in 2017.
Interview by:
Alessandra Monticelli and
Chok Tsering, Heinrich Böll
Stiftung India Office
Additional input:
Ali Al-Nasani, Heinrich Böll
Stiftung Cambodia Office

We empower children, both girls and boys, through skateboarding
and creative education. We reach them through our strong relationships with local communities. All our Skate Schools have a full-timecommunity educator, who is responsible for communicating what
Skateistan does and building relationships with influential people inthe community, other organisations, and our students’ families. It isthrough our community educators that families know they can trust
Skateistan and our programmes are beneficial to their children. We
also run outreach sessions for children from socially disadvantaged
groups to let youngsters know that Skateistan is a safe place.

The Skateistan website (https://skateistan.org/) states: “The daily skate lessons in theempty circular fountain attracted dozens of local youths, including many street-working children selling trinkets or washing cars nearby.” Could you expand on this and how
Skateistan has contributed to urban renewal in some parts of Kabul?
Skateistan does not specifically set out to boost urban renewal. Thatsaid, the presence of our organisation in cities such as Kabul andMazar-e-Sharif does represent a safe space in locations that are often
unsafe for children due to the on-going conflict in the country. These
are child-friendly spaces in cities that can feel hostile to children,
especially girls. Skateistan aims to help children overcome bounda-

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams© Skateistan, all rights reserved

A girl is attending a skateboarding class.

ries in our society, for example, economic status, gender, and ethnicity.
Providing a safe space allows children to reimagine how the outside
world could be.
Actually, “urban renewal” might apply more to our schools in
Cambodia and South Africa. In the former, the Skate School is in arenovated garment factory called Factory Phnom Penh, located in the
country’s capital. We took up a disused space and turned this into askate park that can be used by the wider community, as we hold public
sessions here when our lessons are over. In the latter, the Skate School
is located in downtown Johannesburg in an area with lots of disusedbuildings and informal housing. Skateistan has been part of the regeneration of this area [now known as Maboneng] with our state-of-theart Skate School made from old shipping containers.

How have the political and “post-conflict situation” in Afghanistan defined your approach to Skateistan and how have developments in the country affected this during
your time at the organisation?
From the outset, we could see that skateboarding had a role to play inbuilding up Afghanistan. As a new sport in the country, it served as aleveller. None of the children had experience so regardless of gender,
ethnicity, being rich or poor, they were all beginners. There is also ahuge amount of trust needed to skateboard. You must trust your board,
your trainer, the people around you, and yourself. It was this elementthat was often missing and, by building up trust between children, we
saw a way to overcome these social divisions.

Afghanistan

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Afghanistan

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams© Skateistan, all rights reserved

Girls are waiting to skate.

Sport can be a powerful tool for children who have experienced
hardship. It relieves stress and gives them a chance to excel outside
the classroom. Skateboarding takes determination, resilience, and anunderstanding of how to navigate risk. These are all vital skills for ourstudents growing up in tough environments.
In the Afghan context, it is important that Skateistan is seen as alocal organisation and all our staff are Afghan. This makes it safer for
students as we are not seen as a foreign organisation. When Skateistan
was first set up in Kabul, staff were mainly volunteers from overseas.
Nowadays, this would be a security risk. Thus, we changed our modeland don’t employ international staff in Afghanistan anymore.
What has not changed is that right from the beginning we wanted
to be inclusive, safe, and encourage children to explore their creativity.
As conflict has become part of life for many children in this country,
it is highly important that Skateistan feels different by being secureand nurturing. In Mazar-e-Sharif, we also provide mental health support for children who have experienced trauma, including counselling with experts and the provision of a sensory room, a space which
stimulates and relaxes the senses through lights, sound, and soft furnishings, such as carpets, curtains, and cushions.

Could you explain the social context that girls face and how they benefit from thisprogramme?
There are a lot of challenges for children in Afghanistan and these areoften exacerbated for girls. Many girls are excluded from education.
Around 40% of primary-age children in Afghanistan do not attend
school and around 60% of these children are girls. Sport is often seen
as inappropriate for girls and exercising in public is frowned upon in
many communities. In addition, early or even forced marriage is a realissue for many girls, further restricting their freedom and opportunities to pursue their own interests.

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams

Your website also notes that Skateistan’s “Youth Leaders from Kabul spoke at [the]Afghan parliament, UN events, and travelled internationally for opportunities in Indonesia, South Korea, and the UAE”. Which issues did the young leaders raise with the
Afghan parliament? What are the outcomes from such presentations?
Our students have been given the opportunity to speak at many significant occasions in different locations. At the Afghan parliament, forexample, students talked about the importance of education and safe
spaces. They requested that all families allow their children to go toschool, as children are the future of the nation.
In terms of outcomes, opportunities such as representing
Skateistan at a national level in the Afghan parliament, or at a regionalskate training camp in China, build children’s confidence by developing their public speaking skills. They position Skateistan as an organisation that families can trust and respect, and this again assists us togrow within the community and reach more children. Lastly, it raises
our profile internationally, which can enhance fund-raising.

What are the links between Afghanistan, Cambodia, and South Africa? Why did you
decide to focus on these three countries?
This was a combination of circumstance, need, and opportunity.
When our founder and executive director Oliver Percovich came to
Kabul in 2007, he did not arrive with the intention of starting up askateboarding NGO. But once he was in Afghanistan, he realised there
was potential to make a real difference to the lives of the children hemet, and responded to that need.
Expansion to other countries, and the setting up of our offices in
Cambodia in 2011 and South Africa in 2016, was based on meetingpeople in those places who were passionate about starting somethingamazing. Knowing that we had the right people on the ground helped
to get things going, while recognising a need among the young population of Cambodia and South Africa for safe spaces where childhood
can be celebrated.

Are there any similarities or differences between Afghanistan and Cambodia, withregard to socio-political setting?
Culturally, they are very different and we adapt our programmes foreach place. However, the need is similar. In all the locations, there are:• gender stereotypes that prevent girls from seeing themselves as
equal• a lack of safe spaces for children to play
• many children from low income backgrounds, who may not haveaccess to quality education.

What are your thoughts about skateboarding making its debut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games? Is there likely to be a representation from Afghanistan at the Olympics?
We are excited to see skateboarding recognised by the Olympics. Our
students will be pleased to see a sport that they engage in every week
on the global stage and it will make them feel like they are part ofsomething bigger. We don’t know if Afghanistan will be represented
in 2021 when the Olympics will now be held as a result of the Corona
crisis. But we look forward to this when it happens!

Afghanistan

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Afghanistan

Skateistan: Empowering Girls to Follow their Dreams

Do you think the Olympics could be an occasion for further empowerment of Afghan,
Cambodian, and South African young people?
Yes – it is important for young people to have role models and inspiration. The Olympics will provide this and show them that anything ispossible.

What goals has Skateistan achieved since it was established and what future aims doesit have?
Right now, we reach over 2,500 students per week and around half
are girls. Along with our four Skate Schools in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif,
Phnom Penh, and Johannesburg, we have just begun work on our fifthin Bamyan in central Afghanistan.
Regarding the longer term, we have a 10-year strategic plan toincrease to 10 Skate Schools around the world and increase participation of children with disabilities to 20%. We will always have our goalof 50% participation by girls. We also hope to reach 8,000 children per
week. These aims are ambitious but we are confident that our strategicplan will enable us get there.

Are there any other areas, regions, or countries you would like Skateistan to explore?
Our roots are in Afghanistan so this will always be a focus for us. However, we do want to expand Skateistan all over the world, especiallyto places where we can make a positive difference to children’s lives.
Our next school will be Bamyan (2020-21) in Afghanistan, and thenanother in Jordan (2021-22). The Jordan Skate School will help us torespond to the refugee crisis and serve some of the refugee population
there.

Many attending your classes and courses have been young girls, who were able to interact with peers and gain access to an educational setting for the first time. Do you feel
Skateistan can contribute to gender equality in conservative societies such as Afghanistan?
In Afghanistan, we put a huge amount of effort into reaching girls.
Our community educators enable us to build close relationships inthe locations where our schools are based. It is their job to meet families, encourage them to allow their daughters to attend classes, and tounderstand the benefits of girls’ education and sport.
We have girls-only days to make the classes appropriate for young
girls. Girls have female educators, and we also provide them with safe
transportation. Some families don’t want their daughters to participate at first. But we work with them on recognising that it is safe andbeneficial. Sometimes there are also social concerns. But we liaise
closely with community religious leaders, and they then encourage
families to let girls attend.

In view of your work at Skateistan, is there any other issue that you feel is important
to mention in relation to sport and politics?
Skateistan is a non-political organisation. All we want is an environment where all children can feel safe to have fun, express themselves,and create a better future.

Shaping up Sport for all Genders Hong Kong

49

Shaping up Sport for all Genders
An Interview with Law SiufungThis year, the Corona crisis has deprived
many people of the opportunity to
exercise and compete in sports competitions. However, for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities, that possibility has never been
easy, even in unexceptional times, especially for Asian professional athletes. In
the following interview, gender fluid bodybuilder Law Siufung discusses the hurdles
facing LGBTI athletes in Hong Kong andbeyond, and explores possible directions
towards gender diversity, inclusion, andself-acceptance.
Away from the scorching June heat of downtown Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, Law
Siufung meets us in a private library where
she is working over summer 2020. “I am aprofessional bodybuilder, an academic ongender research, and an advocate on gender
possibilities,” she explains. “I am a biologically born female, but socially I would preferto live like a guy. I am gender fluid, whichmeans not conforming to the typical binaryof male and female.”With a broad grin that we soon realiseis Siufung’s signature expression, and her
muscular frame comfortably – and appropriately – seated alongside shelves of critical theory books, she then starts to unfold
her perspective on the issues facing LGBTI
people in sport.

Inequalities in the arena
Siufung notes that, as an unwritten rule,most sports federations in Hong Kong
would not choose LGBTI athletes who have
openly declared their gender identities

to publicly serve as representatives. Thisin turn implies reduced opportunities for
future training, selection for competitions,and sponsorships. In addition, while moreHong Kong LGBTI athletes have come out
in both professional and recreational arenas
in recent years, discrimination and bullying
can still be serious for gay men, especiallythose in team sports such as football andbasketball. While lesbians are relatively lessstigmatised and pressured, from what Siufung has observed, Asian LGBTI athletes arein general much less visible than their western counterparts.
The difference arises from a more conservative sporting environment, lack ofsupport from coaches and teammates, anddifferent cultural viewpoints on gender andsexuality. Religious factors in some Asian
countries may also pose extra challenges.
As a result, many Asian LGBTI athletes arewilling to support the Hong Kong-hosted
Gay Games 2022 (see box) as individuals,
but would prefer not to be recognised or be
vocal in the public sphere.

Intersex and transgendercompetition controversies
As most sports competitions are establishedaround the binary gender categories of maleand female, the emergence of intersex andtransgender athletes has posed complex
challenges to existing regulations and controversy over “unfair advantages”, especiallyin female sports, as such athletes may possess different muscle mass, hormones, andbodily proportions.
The case of South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya illustrates the

Law Siufung is a professional
bodybuilder, academic researcher,and genderfluid advocate from
Hong Kong. S/he identifies herself
as genderfluid, and is active
in promoting gender inclusionand diversity in Hong Kong andAsia. S/he has competed as aprofessional female bodybuilder
since 2015 and won several
international championships,
including Ms International Classic, Vancouver Pro Qualifier, andArnold Classic Asia (Hong Kong).
S/he lectures on gender andtransgender studies in universities,
community colleges and highschools, and advocates on gender
fluidity in local and international
media, companies, and NGOs. S/
he is currently an Ambassador
and Sports Lead of the Gay
Games Hong Kong 2022, andambassador for Pink Dot Hong
Kong 2020.

Interview by:
Lucia Siu and Clemens Kunze,Heinrich Böll Stiftung Hong Kong
Office50

Hong Kong

Shaping up Sport for all Genders© Lloyd Terry Jr, with the permission of Law Siufung, all rights reserved

When competing in bodybuilding competitions, Law Siufung turns conventional expectations of a female physiqueinto a "performance of femininity”.

dilemma for intersex people, born with aphysical makeup that does not fit the typical criteria for sports organizations’ gendercategories. Caster was assigned as female atbirth, and has identified as a girl and woman
throughout her life. Yet she bears both X andY chromosomes and has exceptionally highlevel of the male sex hormone, testosterone.
After winning the women’s 800 metres at theWorld Athletics Championships in 2009, she
was barred from competition and requiredby sports bodies to undertake gender verification testing, only being allowed to startcompeting again in 2010.
Meanwhile, US transgender bodybuilder Janae Kroc, whose story has been
made into the Netflix documentary, Transformer, is an illustration of the issues surrounding male-to-female sportspeople.
If Janae is to compete in female strength
sports such as bodybuilding, other competitors, who typically weigh around 90kgs(200lbs) might have to take on Janae, whoweighs over 135kgs (300lbs). In light of thisand despite Janae’s new gender identity andappearance, in 2019 she stated on social
media that she had decided to go back tocompeting in men’s category contests.
Earlier in 2015, new guidelines ontransgender athletes were agreed andadopted by International Olympic Committee officials, in consultation with medical experts, to serve as recommendations
for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and forother international sports bodies to follow.
In the new guidelines, no surgery or hormone therapy requirements were placed ontransgender female-to-male athletes competing in men’s events. For male-to-female
athletes seeking to enter women’s competitions, the testosterone level in their blood
had to fall below 10 nanomols per litre forat least a year before being eligible.
Compared to chromosomes, self-identity, or genitalia, a hormonal thresholdappears to provide clearer and more practical criterion from Siufung’s perspective,
seeing the testosterone entry guideline
as progress. However, the situation has
remained fluid for intersex athletes. In 2018,
the International Association of Athletics Federations introduced new eligibility
rules for female athletes with differences ofsexual development (e.g. intersex athletes),
specifying testosterone levels of less than 5
nanomols per litre. Caster Semenya challenged this change but lost her case in 2019.

Muscling in on the female
form
Meanwhile, in the bodybuilding world,
there are other differences in norms thatfemale athletes need to consider when
they set out to compete. While some sports
have objective winning criteria, for example,
time for track events and weight in lifting,Shaping up Sport for all Genders Hong Kongothers such as figure skating, gymnastics,
and bodybuilding have brought genderedaesthetics into rules and judging criteria,with LGBTI bodybuilders having to copewith mainstream standards of masculinity
or femininity to win.
In women’s bodybuilding contests, forexample, all the six regular competition divisions relate to muscle symmetry, proportionand mass: bikini, wellness, figure, fitness(which is a combination of figure poses anda fitness routine), physique, and bodybuilding. At the lighter end of the female bodybuilding categories, bikini athletes paradearound in high heels and “look feminine”
through their long hair styles and matching
skin tones, among others. In-between categories of figure and physique have requirements such as “full round body and legs”,
but such descriptions are kept unspecific.
The bodybuilding category, which is where
Siufung competes, has the highest level ofmuscle requirements but in recent years has
attracted criticism internationally for the“masculine” appearance of the competitors.
Indeed, to stay competitive requires
Siufung to undertake continuous training
and constantly watch her diet. However, shefinds the results definitely worth the effort.
As a highly visual sport, Siufung finds satisfaction in seeing “a perfect version of theself” in the mirror. Well-balanced, symmetrical muscles and a body shape resemblingan inverted triangle all contribute to a visible physical identity of which she is proud.
“From my point of view, muscles are genderless. Powerful muscles exist in both men
and women. I love [bodybuilding]. It is partof my life… For me it’s never [been] just a
hobby, it is part of my identity.”

Selling femininity in the
sports market
However, pressures to conform continue
to make their presence felt among female
bodybuilders. While no formal checklist
exists for judging “femininity” in contests,
such criteria often seem to play a part injudges’ decision-making, Siufung believes.
Many female bodybuilders also appear
willing to go along with this. While it is arequirement in bodybuilding and physique
to compete barefoot on stage, competitors
often choose to walk on and off stage in highheels, alongside their makeup, bikini choice,hairstyle, and accessories – readily associating themselves with more traditional imagesof women. Likewise, as training progresses,
muscles gradually stack and replace breast
tissues. This leads many competitors tohave implants to keep looking feminine
which, from competition outcomes, seems
to be what judges prefer, Siufung says.
She sees competitive female bodybuilding as largely market driven, with judging
criteria, rules, and norms influenced by thepreferences of the thousands of people whosince the late 1970s have bought tickets or
tuned into TV sports channels to see the“bikini girls” on stage. Helped out by sports
promoters who saw the business potential
in such competitions, female bodybuilding
contests enjoyed a golden period from the
1980s up until recently when international
debates over “muscular femininity” anda decrease in audience numbers broughtchanges to the sport.

Gay Games 2022
In November 2022, the first Gay Games
to be hosted in Asia are scheduled totake place in Hong Kong, with Law
Siufung serving as a member of theorganising team. The Gay Games isa nine-day international world-classdiversity festival, arranged by thelesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
queer (LGBTQ+) community and featuring multi-sports, artsand culture events. Held every four years since its debut in 1982
in San Francisco, US, the festival’s goal is to foster equality andsocial integration between LGBTQ+ and straight communities, andprovide a space where LGBTQ+ people can enjoy sports in a safe
and accepting environment. The Gay Games 2022 will encompass
36 different sports, including dragon boat, e-sports, and trail
running. The festival is open to the public as both spectators andvolunteers, with organisers expecting to attract 12,000 participantsand 75,000 spectators from 100 countries.

In 2015, Ms Olympia, one of the leadinginternational female bodybuilding competitions, removed its bodybuilding divisionin line with voices demanding less muscular contestants. As a result, younger womenathletes have tended to move to lighter categories, such as physique or figure, which are
more closely aligned with the fitness industry in terms of body image, and it is mostly
older female athletes in their 40s and 50s
that have stayed with bodybuilding, accord-

51

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Hong Kong

Shaping up Sport for all Genders© Law Siufung, all rights reserved

In sharing sessions with students, Law Siufung can talk frankly about identities and possibilities beyond binary
gender categories.

ing to Siufung. However with the announcement in 2019 that the female bodybuilding
category was to be reintroduced at the 2020
Olympia, she has noticed more women in
their 20s to get back into bodybuilding. And
the strong following that the sport still musters is indicated by Instagram, she notes.
While she has 3,400 followers, some of her
US counterparts number up to one million.

Personal vision for the
future of bodybuilding
With regard to her own career, it was initiallya struggle to wear a bikini as she began her
professional sports life, but postgraduate
studies on post-feminist and post-modern
theories have given her extra room to turnapparent restrictions into fulfilling and fun
experiences. Instead of being defined orconstrained by “a piece of feminine clothing”, she now sees herself actively “performing femininity” when wearing such outfits
during a competition. “I do conform withthe rules. I am not going on stage to take off
my top. If you want femininity and bling, I
will give you femininity and bling.” In linewith this attitude, she has even accepted amagazine interview including a photo shootinvolving high-heel shoes, bikini, and glamorous headpiece. However, usually when
she is off stage, she returns to her “normal
self” and gender fluid existence, where “youhave no rights to control my life or judge me”.
Being gender fluid can sometimes cre-ate conflict, given that many other female
bodybuilders are heterosexuals who want
to retain their femininity, and some see Siufung as disruptive of the public image they
are trying to promote as she does not fit inwith their perspective of the sport.
In Siufung’s ideal society, there would
be more gender diversity, where womenare allowed to choose to be feminine or not,and live by their own choices. On a longer
term basis, as society changes, markets willchange accordingly. “Let the market decide,”
she says. “If you never try out [alternative
possibilities], how will you know what people really prefer?”

Epilogue
Unlike many social minority advocates who
find the fight against mainstream social
forces a cause of anxiety, Siufung spoke
calmly and spontaneously throughout
the interview. We were intrigued how she
managed to be so at peace with herself andthe world despite the complexities of gender identity and stigmas often attached to“being different”. She gave her characteristic
broad grin and then explained how valuing
yourself can be a highly effective answer todiscrimination, bullying, and depression.
“You really gotta love yourself, and be honest
about who you are. Never mind what otherpeople think… With love and honesty, youwill attract like-minded people to love you.”

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Image copyrights

Cover illustration by Kaitlin Chan

© All rights reserved for images on front andback cover, p5, 11-14, 22, 24-29, 36, 45, 46,
50, 51, 52; plus all profile photographs.

This issue’s front and back cover illustrations are by Kaitlin Chan.
On front cover from left to right, the winners podium includes:
Law Siufung, the genderqueer bodybuilder from Hong Kong;a Cambodian worker in the sports manufacturing industry; aFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant worker in a hazmat suit;an ASEAN athlete with a gold medal; and Zainab Hussaini, theAfghan marathon athlete and skateboarder. On the back cover is a
stadium with robot fans (due to the Covid-19 pandemic) cheering
on four athletes: two kabbadi wrestlers from India, a Paralympic
Games athlete from Myanmar playing basketball, and a BMX
extreme sports biker from China.

Images on p16, 18, 38 and 42 are subject
to Creative Commons Licenses.

Kaitlin Chan is an illustrator from Hong Kong. You can find moreof her work at www.kaitlinchan.com.

		Opinions expressed in the articles are those of their authors and not of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

		All articles in this publication are subject to Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 3.0