The Far Eastern Championship Games (also known as the Far Eastern Championships, Far Eastern Games or Far East Games) was an Asian

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

considered to be a precursor to the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

History

In 1913, Elwood Brown, president of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Association and Manila Carnival Games, proposed the creation of the "''Far Eastern Olympic Games''" to China and Japan. It was at that time that

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

William Cameron Forbes William Cameron Forbes (May 21, 1870 – December 24, 1959) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1909 to 1913 and ambassador of the United States to Japan from 1930 to 1932. Ear ...

was the president of the

Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation The Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) was the governing body of sports in the Philippines and the predecessor of the Philippine Olympic Committee. History The Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation was organized in a permanent basi ...

from 1911-1913. Governor-General Forbes formed the Far Eastern Olympic Association. Brown collaborated with J. Howard Crocker and

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

from missionaries in China, Japan and the Philippines, to establish the Far Eastern Championship Games. The first event was held on the Manila Carnival grounds (later the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex) in

Malate Malic acid is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a dicarboxylic acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the sour taste of fruits, and is used as a food additive. Malic acid has two stereoisomeric forms ( ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

on February 4, 1913 and was known as the "First Oriental Olympic Games". Forbes was also the one who formally declare the games open.Bell, Daniel (2003). ''Encyclopedia of International Games''. McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina. . Six countries participated in the eight-day event: the host country then-named

Philippine Islands The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

, British East Indies (Malaysia),

Kingdom of Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and British crown colony

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Critics of the YMCA's involvement with the creation of the Far Eastern Olympic Games point to it being an example of Western cultural imperialism as the YMCA's goals were to push western ideas of physical strength and culture onto these Asian countries. In 1915, the name changed to Far Eastern Championship Games and the association to Far Eastern Athletic Association when the event was held at

Hongkou Park Lu Xun Park, formerly Hongkou (Hongkew) Park, is a municipal park in Hongkou District of Shanghai, China. It is located on 146 East Jiangwan Road, right behind Hongkou Football Stadium. It is bounded by Guangzhong Road to the north, Ouyang Road ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, China. Many citizens in China were curious about the Far Eastern Championship Games and there was a great amount of interest in the novelty of the organized sporting event. This resulted in large crowds of people attending matches making them quite popular which justified the construction of the new sporting infrastructure in China. The games were deemed very popular and were observed by thousands of spectators in China as well as followed by many in the newspapers. They were held there again in 1921. The games were held every two years except in 1929 when Japan decided to delay the project to 1930. The FEAA decided to change the time table to four years and the Philippine Islands hosted the tenth games in 1934.

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(Indonesia) joined in the 1934 FECG. The 1934 edition was held in a period of dispute between China and Japan, following the

Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded the Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident, a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the ...

in 1931. Inclusion of people from this region in the games caused controversy between the two member nations, which resulted in the break-up of the Far Eastern Athletic Association. In September 1937, Japan invaded China with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and started the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

(which later became part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), thus the planned games in 1938 were cancelled.

Editions

Sports

A total of nine different sports were contested over the lifetime of the competition. Eight of the sports featured on each programmes of the games, with the ninth sport –

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

– being held once only, in 1915.

Participating nations

* (all editions) * (1934 only) *

Federated Malay States The Federated Malay States (FMS, , Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of four protectorate, protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established in 1895 by the British government, and whi ...

(1913 only) * (1913 only) * (1930 only) * (all editions) *

(all editions) * (1913 only)

References

Sources

*
Far Eastern Championship Games and Asian Games Research Project

The Far Eastern Championship Games

External links

Philippines Roster in Far Eastern Championship Games

(archived)
Stefan Hübner Research on games in AsiaA Historical Article on the Jewish Delegation from Palestine
{{Far Eastern Games * Recurring sporting events established in 1913 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1934 Asian international sports competitions Defunct multi-sport events Olympic Council of Asia Biennial sporting events 1913 establishments in the Philippines