Wushu, the world famous Chinese martial arts, will be featured
at the Beijing Olympic Games in an optimal way, a sports official
said in Changchun, northeast China, Wednesday.
"Wushu will definitely be a special part of the 2008 Olympics,"
said Chen Guorong, deputy director of the martial arts
administration center of China, at the conclusion of the 2007
National Women's Wushu Sanshou Championship.
Although Denis Oswald, a member of the IOC Executive Board,
recently expressed his concern that Wushu is not internationally
popular enough to become an Olympic program, Chen believes Wushu
has become more and more influential around the world.
"Since the establishment of the International Wushu Federation
(IWUF) in 1991 in Beijing, altogether 114 associations of martial
arts from five continents have joined in. You can say that IWUF is
qualified as a large-scale international sports organization," said
Chen.
According to Chen, China began to promote Wushu in 1982, and
successfully held the first International Wushu Invitation
Tournament in 1985 in Xi'an. Since then Wushu competitions have
sprouted in many countries and regions.
"Wushu has developed rapidly, especially in Asia," said Chen,
"It was admitted as an official program by the Asian Games in 1990,
and gradually earned its admission by the East Asian Games, the
Southeast Asian Games and the South Asian Games. Meanwhile, Wushu
championships have been held in Europe and pan-American countries,
and Wushu is expected to enter the All-Africa Games soon."
As for the competitions, Chen said: "China used to be dominant
in the field, but now things have changed greatly. Taolu, China's
Hongkong, China's Macao, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, and Vietnam have
become our rivals now; Sanshou, Russia, France, Italy, Iran and the
Philippines have also become quite competitive. In certain
heavy-weight categories, players from Europe even bear more
potential for further development than we do."
For the next 10 years, the IWUF will help some other
associations in contest organizing and marketing operation.
(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2007)