This collection of essays charts the amazing histories of circuses and acrobats from around the globe. This collection of essays on circus histories and theories focusing on the Global South and its transnational contexts is significant because circus studies has largely focused on the Global North. Many Latin American, African, and Asian regions have circus histories dating back to the nineteenth century. Many of them have biographies, autobiographies, and histories of this spectacular world written in their own regional languages, which are not available in English or any other global languages. This volume on the histories and contemporary developments of the circus includes transnational and regional circus histories that connect the Global South to the rest of the world. The authors have crafted the essays using wide-ranging archival materials from regional languages, extensive ethnographic research, and conceptual frameworks of connected contexts. This collection of essays on circus histories and theories focusing on the Global South and its transnational contexts is significant because circus studies has largely focused on the Global North. Many Latin American, African, and Asian regions have circus histories dating back to the nineteenth century. Many of them have biographies, autobiographies, and histories of this spectacular world written in their own regional languages, which are not available in English or any other global languages. This volume on the histories and contemporary developments of the circus includes transnational and regional circus histories that connect the Global South to the rest of the world. The authors have crafted the essays using wide-ranging archival materials from regional languages, extensive ethnographic research, and conceptual frameworks of connected contexts. Contents List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Circus Bodies That Matter - Nisha P R; Part I: The Body Politics 1. Flying Devils and Female Fakirs: India on Display at Betram Mills Circus in Interwar Britain - Sabine Hanke; 2. Circus, Histories, and International Relations: China’s Acrobatic Diplomacy in North America from the Cold War to Neoliberal Globalization - Tracy Ying Zhang; Part II: Contemporary and Social Circuses, and Transnationalisms 3. Imagining Mexico: Transnationalism and the Reproduction of Cultural Identity in Contemporary Circus - Roy Gomez Cruz; 4. Just across the Ocean: African Transnationals in Indian Arenas - Nisha P R; 5. Ethiopian Social Circus: Performance, Politics and Dreams - Leah Olwen Llewellyn; 6. Transforming the Ordinary: Social Circus as Inclusion in the Cities of Brazil and Latin America - Alice Demattos Guimaraes; Part III: Bondage and Bonding; 7. Kinds of Kins: Enacting Human Care and Affection Towards Circus Animals in India - Eleonore Rimbault; 8. Staging Representations of Africans at America’s World’s Fairs, Wild West Shows, and Circuses – Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Robert W. Rydell Part IV: Tenting and Touring 9. ‘The World’s Grandest, Largest, Best, Amusement Institution’: Spectatorship, Community Formation, and Conflict at the American Tenting Circus, 1825-1956 - Janet M. Davis; 10. A Strongman Takes on the Circus: Eugen Sandow’s 1904 – 1905 Tour of Asia - Carey A. Watt; 11. Circus in Form: Nineteenth Century Economic Opportunism and Touring Colonial Asia and India - Peta Tait; Comprehensive Bibliography; Notes on Contributors; Index