Indigenous Sports History and Culture in Asia

The book is overwhelmingly discussing martial arts culture and its popularity within the global context. It reviews Japan’s martial arts and how it expanded globally. It further reviews the evolution of Korean martial arts and how sports between North Korea and South Korea are used as diplomacy. Furthermore, a comparative study between China’s and Japan’s traditional sports narrates the modern transformation of the art. Regret about the book is an omission on the expansion of Asian martial arts in developing countries, for example, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, because it would have given insight into the positive evolvement and challenges of martial arts in developing countries. Although the chapter about Israel’s combat discipline by using Asian martial arts from 1891 gives an interesting twist to the book, we would rather have preferred insight into the implementation of martial arts in developing countries. Despite the book’s above-mentioned shortcomings, the language is accessible, and the book is structured and coherent.