The 1921

Far Eastern Championship Games 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 considered to be a precursor to the Asian Games. History In 1913, Elwood Brown, president of ...

was the fifth edition of the regional

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 interna ...

, contested between China, Japan and the Philippines, and was held from 30 May to 3 June in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. A total of eight sports were contested over the course of the five-day event. India, Malaya, Siam (Thailand), Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Java were all invited to participate at the games, but did not do so due to the expense of sending teams to Shanghai.Bell, Daniel (2003). ''Encyclopedia of International Games''. McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina. . In the football competition, China was represented by

South China AA South China Athletic Association (known simply as South China, SCAA, ) is a Hong Kong professional football club that competes in the Hong Kong First Division, the second-tier league in Hong Kong football league system. The club is historic ...

, a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

-based team. Women were included in the games for the first time. Although no women competed in sports events, around 830 Shanghai schoolgirls did a mass

calisthenics Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) ( /ˌkælɪsˈθɛnɪks/) is a form of strength training consisting of a variety of movements that exercise large muscle groups (gross motor movements), such as standing, graspi ...

demonstration, which included the miming of actions from the sports involved on the main, men-only programme. The opening ceremony saw cheering of all participants by both Japanese visitors and the Chinese home crowd. The Japanese delegation contained athletes from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(the former Chinese island then under Japanese rule), but there is no record of any Chinese reaction to this. The closing ceremony was marred by six anarchist protesters from

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

disrupting the proceedings. The group distributed anti-capitalist material advocating the overthrow of the government and one fired a gun. The group were arrested at the scene.Morris, Andrew D. (2004). ''Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China''
pp. 96–97
University of California Press. .

Participants

* * * Philippine Island

Sports

References

{{Far Eastern Championship Games Far Eastern Championship Games

International sports competitions hosted by China Multi-sport events in China 1921 in Shanghai Sports competitions in Shanghai