China Popular Itineraries |
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Wushu in the Republic of China (1912- 1949) |
In the early period of the Republic of China, the practice of Wushu expe-rienced a prosperous time. Huo Yuanjia, the founder of mizongquan, an in-fluential and a famous Chinese boxing sect, made a hit for his feats of Wushu. At the same time, there appeared a number of Wushu societies and associa-tions, among which "Jingwu Chinese Boxing Society" was the biggest in size. Its branch associations had been set up in several provinces as well as in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which played an active part in promoting and inher-iting the tradition of Wushu.
In the regime of KMT, "Central Association of Guoshu " was founded in Nanjing (1926) and Wushu was renamed as Guoshu. Twenty-four provincial and municipal associations were set up consequently, followed by more than 300 county-level ones. Jiang Jieshi, the president of republic then, had de-manded that Guoshu be taught as a major training in the military forces and a required course offered in the institutions of higher education. Consequently, there emerged many Wushu masters and Wushu specialists.
The period of the Republic of China saw the diversity of Wushu organi-zations with various forms. They competed with each other and, therefore, propelled Wushu forward to quite a large scale.
In 1928 and 1933, twice did the Central Guoshu Association hold the na-tional test of Wushu in Nanjing. The competition covered Chinese boxing se-ries, long weapons, short weapons and free sparring. Also held were some fairly scaled Wushu performances, such as the "Guoshu Games" in Hangzhou in 1929 and the visit paid to Southeast Asia by the national Wushu delega-tion. Meanwhile, many kinds of short-term Wushu training courses were of-fered, academic researches of Wushu carried out and a number of works on Wushu put into print. |
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