Chinese Traditional Sports

China is an ancient civilization with over 5000 years of history. In the long course of historical development, Chinese traditional sports often reflected different aspects of contemporary politics, economy, culture, religion and customs of various ethnic groups (¿¿¿¿¿¿). The traditional sports made positive contributions to the prosperity of the Chinese nation, promoted the physical and mental health of the people, strengthened national unity, and supported active cultural life. In fact, there are 56 nationalities in China and their colorful traditional sports are a valuable cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The book has 20 chapters, including: Chapter 1: Overview of Traditional Chinese Sports (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 2: Chinese Kung Fu (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 3: Bruce Lee (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 4: Tai Chi (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 5: Lion Dance (¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 6: Tug of War (¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 7: Ancient Football (¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 8: Spinning Top (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 9: Stilts (¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 10: Throwing Hydrangea (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ) Chapter 11: Fireworks (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 12: Shooting/Crossbow (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) Chapter 13: Mongolian Wrestling (Buke) (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿/¿¿) Although China has long been associated with the Martial Arts (¿¿), in traditional Chinese sports, there are widely-spread sports such as Horse Riding (¿¿), Archery (¿¿), Tai Chi (¿¿¿), Dragon Boat Races (¿¿¿), Lion Dance (¿¿), and so on. These sports narrate distinctive Chinese culture with regional characteristics. Some show the customs of the water country in the south (¿¿), some exude the aroma of the northern grassland (¿¿), and some have the magic of the plateau (¿¿). Many of the official events in the modern Olympic Games, such as football, running, weightlifting, wrestling, archery and other sports can be found in the Chinese traditional sports, and some of them have a longer history in China than in the West. For example, Cuju (¿¿) is a unique title of ancient Chinese football. It is a traditional Chinese sport and entertainment method with a history of more than 2,000 years. The origin of Dragon Boat Racing (¿¿¿) dates back to about 2500 years ago and remains a traditional event held around China every year. Bows and arrows are one of the earliest long-range weapons invented by the mankind. It is said that Chinese bows and arrows originated from the time of the Yellow Emperor (¿¿). The current book volume, Chinese Traditional Sports, is a Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to a variety of important Chinese sports, such as Kung Fu (¿¿), Tai Chi Chuan (¿¿¿), Ancient Football (¿¿, Cuju), Mongolian Wrestling (¿¿¿¿), Horse Racing (¿¿), etc. As such, all these traditional sports are very essential part of learning Chinese language and culture. The new volume in the "Introduction to Chinese Culture Series", includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin. With about 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3) to learn Chinese culture as well as practice Chinese reading fast.