Wang Yuanyuan

    cheekywang@hotmail.com

    THE big fighting scene on Guangming Peak in Louis Cha’s (known as Jin Yong in Chinese) popular novel, “Dragon Buster,” is an epic moment in the Chinese kung-fu novel.

    Taking inspiration from the novel, news of a tournament, for leaders of different schools of martial arts, held on the beautiful and mysterious Tianshan Mountain, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Aug. 6 and 7 was announced one month ago. Despite doubts on the Internet about how a scene from a book could be realized in real life.

    The Tianshan event, which was held in the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, invited representatives from 11 wushu schools like Shaolin, Wudang and Emei, to share experiences while displaying characteristic skills and uniforms.

    However, the event received negative reviews from the public, as the local county chief admitted it was held to promote local tourism, and wushu fans claimed it was more like a cosplay show.

    According to Chinese media, the so-called martial-art tournament was actually a seminar about martial arts and culture. In the seminar, Shi Dechao, a representative of Shaolin school, said that Shaolin is “not a kungfu but a zen,” while You Xuande, representing Wudang school, gave a comprehensive introduction about the essences of Wudang martial art.

    Audiences were unsatisfied as no fights were held. Instead the masters only talked about their martial arts.

    The second part of the program was a lecture by seven well-known Sinologists discussing Sinology and Zen. “Compared with the first part, this part was interesting. The Sinologists are true masters in Sinology. I’ve learned a lot from them, but this has nothing to do with martial arts, so I don’t know why it is a part of the program,” an audience member told a Chinese newspaper.

    “The event was actually part of the program for ‘Tianshan Cultural Week’ held in Tekesi, but because the speakers would pass through Urumqi, we thought we would invite them to do something here as well to promote Urumqi and Tianshan Mountain,” said Xu Na, director of the project department in Xinjiang Morning Post Co. Ltd.

    Many netizens questioned the quality of guests as some suspected they were not the real school leaders of martial arts.

    “Being a leader is something very serious in martial art circles,” said Liu Suibin, leader of Qingcheng school. “For example for our Qingcheng school, a leader has to be approved by the previous leaders and receives costumes and swords as a form of recognition. Our school is quite small and simple, so I can call myself the leader. Other schools have a lot of sub-schools, some may be the leading person, but it is not proper to call them ‘leaders.’”

    “Media used the word ‘leader’ to attract attention,” said Wu Xinliang, secretary general and chief coach of Emei Martial Arts Association.

    Wu was earlier questioned by a vice chairman of the Emei Martial Arts Association. “I was not a leader of the Emei school. Emei is a big family and nobody can be the leader over others.”

    Chinese Wushu Association, the official organization for the country’s martial-art circle, said the tournament was an event organized by private organizations and not an official event organized by the government department for martial arts.

    “The association holds official competitions and activities every year with approval of the General Administration of Sport. Other official martial-art activities organized by local governments will also get approvals from the association. The Tianshan event had nothing to do with us and we did not give them any approval,” said Han Jianming, head of the publicity department of Chinese Wushu Association.

    Despite the criticism the representatives were calm. “It is very difficult for martial-art professionals to survive and promote their skills. Although there were negative reviews, it was still good to see people pay attention to it,” said Liu.