This study explores the intricate power relation and negotiation between sports and colonial power by examining the 1913 Far Eastern Olympiad, a key spectacle within the Manila Carnival. Drawing upon Gerald Gem’s (2006) work on sports in colonial contexts, this research paper analyzes how this Olympiad functioned as a stage for projecting colonial power and shaping perceptions. The Manila Carnival, with its carefully crafted narratives and visual displays, operated as a stage for producing “imaginations” that reinforced American colonial ideologies like Manifest Destiny, White Man’s Burden, and Benevolent Assimilation. Drawing on Guy Debord (1994), the Olympiad within the Manila Carnival was integral in presenting a colonial vision of progress, modernity, and identity. Re-examining newspaper photographs and narratives from 1912-1913, this paper explores the unfolding of the 1913 Far Eastern Olympiad. While these primary sources reveal colonialist representations, they also allow reconstructions and negotiations of (colonized) identities. Filipino athletes were often exoticized and marginalized, reinforcing racial hierarchies. Conversely, the presence of Japanese athletes highlighted the complexities of inter-Asian relations within the context of Western imperialism and regional aspirations. Employing Alice Guillermo’s (2001) critical framework on the “language” of images and Roland Barthes’s (1988) semiotic approach to decode denotative and connotative meanings, this study aims to discourse the complex ways power, race, and identity were constructed, reconstructed, and negotiated in the 1913 Far Eastern Olympiad within the socio-political context of the Manila Carnival.

Authors:
Moreal Camba, University of Asia and the Pacific, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Moreal Camba is a scholar specializing in Philippine Studies, with a Ph.D. from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her research interests include Philippine Language and Literature, Translation Studies, and American Colonial History.

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