First of all, it is necessary to make clear about some terms as
they are generally understood in China, though there are still
minor differences in interpretation. In ancient times, there were
no words in the Chinese vocabulary entirely equivalent to the
Western terms of "sport" and "physical education." Such physical
exercises as wrestling, swordplay, archery, charioteering and
horse-racing were all included in military training and therefore
came under the general term of "wuyi," or "martial arts." Thus a
scholar was required "to be versed in both polite letters and
martial arts."
It was not until the last century that sport in the modern sense
of the word found its way into China, first in the form of military
drills, and then as part of the curricula of Western-type schools.
Correspondingly, "sport" was first translated "ticao," or "physical
education" or "physical culture" as part of national culture.
Today, "sport" has become a general mass sports (or sports for all)
and school physical education. Though these maybe overlapping in
form and content. At the same time, "sport" denotes a specific game
or sporting event.
Modern sport was introduced into China as a result of the
modernization of sport in the West on the one hand, and of the
Westernization Movement in China on the other.
Following the prohibition of the ancient Olympic Games in the
fourth century AD, Europe entered the Dark Ages with the fall of
the Roman Empire. From the 14th to the mid-18th century, the
continent underwent the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Wars
of Religion, marked by the spread of humanism and a return to
classical values. While studying the Greco-Roman civilization, the
humanists found the ancient "education of the body" highly
beneficial for the restoration of the universally human values as
against the debased scholasticism, utilitarian science and
religious dogma. Gymnastics developed fast both in theory and
practice in many countries, especially in Sweden and Germany, while
outdoor games underwent many reforms in England. A number of modern
sports, such as rugby and volleyball, came into existence in and
outside Europe. New rules were formulated for football by the
England Football Association founded in 1863. International sports
organizations were set up one after another. The French
educationist Pierre de Coubertin's ideas culminate in the revival
of Olympic Games towards the end of the 19th century.
Following the Opium War in 1840, the feudal China was turned
into a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country, suffering from repeated
defeats in wars against imperialist invasion and with large areas
of her territory annexed by the Western powers. During the last
four decades of the 19th century, a number of reformists adopted
Western technology and even built a new army and navy after the
Western fashion. The Qing government engaged a number of foreigners
to teach "foreign drills" and opened physical training courses in
some military academies, including gymnastics, fencing, boxing,
athletics, football and swimming. In the new-type public schools
established by the reformists on the pattern of Western education,
great attention was paid to physical training, which played a
positive role in criticizing the prevailing "cult for frail-looking
scholars."
Early this century, it was stipulated that all schools should
open ticao courses for two or three hours a week, with military
formations as the main content "for an even-balanced development of
the body, agility of the four limbs, a cheerful frame of mind, and
the cultivation of bravery, esprit de corps and sense of
discipline." Being tinted with militarist colours, the monotonous
ticao courses, mostly conducted by low-ranking army officers,
failed to suit the physical and mental characteristics of the
juveniles and fell into disfavour with the general public. In
1922-23, the Northern Warlords' government had to change ticao into
tiyu (physical education) courses, which replaced military drills
with modern athletics and ball games.
There was yet another important channel through which modern
sports were introduced into China---the missionary schools and
colleges and YMCA organizations founded in various parts of the
country by British, American and other Churches to disseminate
Christianity. The schools had no physical training courses, but
they promoted athletics and ball games as extracurricular
activities. Around 1890 athletic meet were held under the
sponsorship of ST. John's College in Shanghai. Basketball was
introduced into China through the YMCA in Tianjin. A number of
classes for training sports organizers and instructors were set up.
Textbooks and journals on physical training were published. A small
number of gymnasiums and swimming pools were built in China's major
cities. C.H.Robertson, a YMCA secretary, gave many lectures in
Beijing and Tianjin on the topic of modern sports.
In 1924, the All-China Athletic Association was founded as the
first national sports organization. One of its tasks was to host
the Far Eastern Championship Games and carry out exchanges with
international sports organizations, select athletes for
participation in the Olympic Games and such international
tournaments as the Davis Cup for tennis.
During the '30s, the Kuomintang government promulgated a series
of programmes concerning school physical education based on Western
systems, which, however, produced little effects because of their
divorcement from reality and for lack of teaching personnel and
financial resources. The '40s witnessed a low ebb in sports and
physical education because of the wars.
In the communist-led revolutioinary bases, sports activities
were carried out in connection with military training during
respites, and athletic meets were often held on such holidays as
the Chinese People's Liberation Army Day on August 1 and the
international Labour Day on May 1. During the War of Resistance
Against Japan, the "Fighting" basketball team under the 120th
Division became a backbone in promoting sports among the troops.
Its commander, General He Long, was later appointed Vice-Premier
and concurrently Minister in charge of the State Commission for
Physical Culture and Sports soon after the founding of the People'
Republic.
With the introduction of modern sports into China, the
traditional Chinese sports receded into the background as a
physical education system. However, during the long process of
development, some of them---such as wrestling, archery and
horse-racing---have remained independent sports , while physical
exercises, barehanded or with weapons, have developed into wushu
with attacking and defensive skills as its contents and set-pattern
routines and free combat as its forms. There are hundreds of
schools and styles of wushu, the most popular being taijiquan
practiced regularly by millions upon millions of people for the
purpose of keeping fit and curing chronic diseases. Up to now, the
traditional sports centered around wushu have remained dominant as
far as the number of participants is concerned.
In recent years, many traditional Chinese sports have adopted
Western rules and regulations. In wushu, for instance, competitions
are conducted with reference to modern gymnastics in evaluation and
awarding points. In the Mongolian-style wrestling of "bok," there
is team competition as at the World Table Tennis Championships and
the seeding system is used in the individual events so that
superior competitors will not be eliminated in the first
rounds.
The Westernization of physical education laid a solid social
foundation for the later development of the Olympic Movement in
China.
(china.org.cn July 7, 2004)