Western sports like soccer, tennis, baseball and cricket spread to Asia beginning in the mid-to-late 19th century. Many (e.g. rugby, soccer, cricket, golf) had origins in the United Kingdom, were incubated in that nation’s public schools, and were played and taught throughout the British Empire. Others (e.g. baseball, basketball, volleyball) were American inventions brought to Asia by teachers and missionaries living abroad. Throughout the modern period, sports were seen as symbols of colonialism, used as tools of national self-assertion, and today they reflect a global consumer culture that has developed during our most recent surge of increased contact and economic interdependency, what many call ‘globalization’.
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