Strongman Eugen Sandow’s World Tour of 1904-1905: The ‘Perfect Man’ in Colonial India and Afro-Asia: 1 (Anthem Studies in Travel, 1)

This book is about strongman and physical culture pioneer Eugen Sandow’s (1867-1925) encounter with colonial Afro-Asia at the turn of the twentieth century, and the fascinating legacy of that encounter.It reveals the significance of Sandow’s 17-month world tour of 1904-1905 (through South Africa, India, the Straits Settlements [Singapore and Malaysia], and China), with much attention devoted to the 8months he spent in India-the British Empire’s “Jewel in the Crown”.It highlights the wider empire, the globalization of physical culture (including yoga and ju-jitsu), and new notions of scientifically sculpted muscular male bodies, entertainment, and transnational or global connections and comparisons in the first decade of the twentieth century.