Traditional Sports
Traditional sports with distinct Chinese characteristics are very popular, including martial arts, Taijiquan or shadow boxing, Qigong, Chinese chess and Weiqi (encirclement chess).
Martial arts, combining exercise and the arts of self-defense, enjoy great popularity in China. Martial arts include bare-handed boxing as well as offence and defense with equipment, both of which has different schools and moves.
Taijiquan, or Chinese shadow boxing, combines the control of body, mind and breath. It emphasizes body movements following mind movements, tempering toughness with gentleness and graceful postures.
Qigong a system of deep breathing exercises, is a unique Chinese way of keeping fit. It aims at enhancing health, prolonging life, curing illnesses and improving physiological functions by concentrating the mind and regulating the breath.
There are various entertaining and competitive sports activities in the minority-inhabited areas, for example, wrestling and horsemanship among Mongols, Uygurs and Kazaks, Tibetan yak racing, ethnic Korean seesaw jumping, crossbow archery among the Miao, and dragon-boat racing among the Dai ethnic minority.
Traditional Acrobatic Acts
Chinese acrobatics has a long and rich heritage. The acrobatic art has been existent in China for more than two thousand years. As early as the Warring States Period, the rudiments of acrobatics existed. By the time of the Han Dynasty, the acrobatic art or “Hundred Plays” further developed both in content and variety. In the Tang Dynasty, the number of acrobats greatly increased and their performing skills improved a great deal. Traditional acrobatic acts are as follows.
Lion Dance
This evolved from an old folk dance in China. In the dance, there are two types of lions: big lion (played by two acrobats) and small lion (played by one man). They not only perform the various movements of the lion such as rolling and jumping but also vividly portray the lion’s strength and agility as well as the quiet and playful sides of the lion’s character.
Cycling Feats
In this act, two types of cycles are used: monocycles on which the acrobats adroitly perform various beautiful postures; and bicycles on which they also display a variety of postures, among which the beautiful tableau of a peacock fanning its feathers is the best.
Tightwire Feats
Known as “walking on a rope” in ancient China, it is a traditional performance dating back 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty. Walking on a wire instead of a rope is a renovation illustrating new vigor and skills. The acrobat uses somersault dexterity, which is a basic acrobatic skill, to perform such difficult feats as cartwheels and somersaults on a trembling wire.
Traditional-style Conjuring
This is an ancient Chinese traditional performance unique in form and style. With the help of a big robe and some pieces of cotton cloth, the conjurer brings forth many large and small glass bowls filled with water and live fish as well as a brazier with burning fire. While taking off the robe, the conjurer again produces a big glass water bowl with fish in it at the end of a somersault. The unique aspect is that the conjurer produces water and fire without wetting or burning his robe.
Hoop Diving
This is an item developed from “Leaping through Rings on the Ground”. It was known as “Swallow Play” more than 2,000 years ago because the performers imitated the flying movements of swallows as they leapt nimbly through a mat of narrow rings. It was also called “Dashing Through Narrows”. The performers are graceful and agile in their movements and demonstrate incredible dexterity.
Wushu
With movements of somersault, pulling, jumping, kicking and various postures, it has become an acrobatic symbol. The agility, precision and rhythm of acrobat movements convey a sense of vigor, strength and beauty.
Spring-board Stunts
Through leaps and somersaults in the air, the acrobats perform graceful movements which give the audience an excellent demonstration of acrobatic art.
Meteor Juggling
The performer swings glass bowls that move like meteors in the sky. The performer revolves soft rope with two glass bowls filled with water fastened to its ends, tossing it up and performing difficult feats such as forward roll and backward somersault and then catching it again and continuing to dance and turn about without spilling the water.
Gymnastics on Double-fixed Poles
“Pole Climbing” is one of the main traditional acrobatic acts in China; vivid descriptions date back 1,000 years. On the basis of “Pole Climbing”, new acrobatic movements such as jumping from one pole to the other, swift descent, and many others have been added.
