Ethnic style wrestling amazes wrestlers from Taiwan
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China Daily, September 14, 2011
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Two players wrestle against each other during an ethnic-style wrestling event at the Ninth National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, Sept 13, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto] |
The wrestling events in the ongoing ninth Chinese National Ethnic Games are different from those under Olympic rules. But the charm of the ethnic style wrestling is so amazing that coach and wrestlers from Taiwan want to bring the sports back home.
The wrestling events in the Ethnic Games in Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou province in Southwest China, features six events in Mongolian, Uygur, Hui, Korean, Tibetan and Yi's styles with a total of 29 top prizes up for grabs.
There are a total of five wrestlers from Taiwan delegation and all of them will compete in the Hui-style events. The 31-year-old Du Jiangwen of Gaoshan nationality lost his competition against an opponent from Tianjin province on Tuesday, but still he was quite excited.
"I have not received regular training in Hui-style wrestling for ten years. Before coming to Guizhou, I just have one month for camp training, it is not possible to gain instant success. I am not quite familiar with the feeling of competition," said Du, who is working in a construction firm in Taiwan.
According to Du, the Hui-style wrestling was once popular in Taiwan ten years ago when he started training as a student and later won gold medals in local wrestling tournaments. However, as it is not an Olympic sport, it has become harder and harder for the sport to attract followers.
"When we return home after the Ethnic Games, we will try to make it popular again in Taiwan," said Ye Junxiang, coach of Du.
After all the wrestlers from Taiwan delegation finished their matches on Tuesday, Ye and Du did not leave the venue instead they went on to watch other competitions and record them with their video camera.
"Wrestling of Mongolian, Uygur, Korean, Tibetan and Yi's styles have their own characters and are all very interesting. We want to record these different types of wrestling and study them after we return to Taiwan," said Ye.
China's National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities is held every four years and it has helped some of the ethnic games spread to various ethnic groups.
During the previous editions of the quadrennial sports and culture gala, the interesting phenomenon that Tibetan wrestlers won the Korean-style and ethnic-Yi-style wrestling, while Uygur athletes from Xinjiang took a Tibetan-style event has been a common scene.
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