Investigation and Study on Traditional Sports of Eight Ethic Groups

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Investigation and Study on Traditional Sports of Eight Ethic Groups
in Xinjiang
WU Jie, ZHANG Zhixin
College of Physical Education, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi, China, 830054
Abstract: Using the methods of literature review, questionnaire and interview, this paper mainly studies
on Xinjiang urban and rural residents’ participation of and attitude to traditional ethnic sports, factors
restricting them to join in the sports, and their attitude towards the development of the sports. Based
on the research results, the paper puts forward to combining traditional ethnic sports with public sports
and school sports, strengthening their publicity, making them industrialized, strengthening the
construction of the traditional sports grounds, and enhancing traditional sports theory study and
personnel training
Keywords: Xinjiang, traditional ethnic sports, participation, investigation
Xinjiang, inhabited by multiple nationalities, is an important frontier area for implementing the strategy
of developing China's western regions. It is also a vital gateway for China's opening up and a important
base for strategic resources. There are 55 ethnic groups in Xinjiang. The 13 major nationalities include
Uygur, Han and Kazak, etc. [1]. Because of the special geographical location, exotic natural environment
and unique cultural resources, residents of all nationalities in the long practice of production have
developed many traditional sports full of ethnic life flavor such as horse racing, goat-skin snatching,
girl’s chasing, and so on. Traditional ethnic sports play an irreplaceable role in promoting people’s
physical and mental health and the harmonious development of the society in Xinjiang. Therefore, in
order to have an overall knowledge of all urban and rural ethnic residents’ current participation in
traditional sports and to find out their development features so as to improve the quality of people’s
sports activities, the project team visited 16 counties and cities from July, 2006 to June, 2009,
interviewed 4000 urban and rural residents of eight ethnic groups, namely, Urgur, Han, Kazak, Hui,
Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Xibo, Tajik, and carried out a research on their current participation in their
traditional sports.
1 Research Subjects and Methods
1.1 Research subjects
This project takes Xinjiang residents above 16(including 16) years old of the eight ethnic groups as
research subjects, and conducts a research on urban and rural residents’ current participation in their
traditional sports.
1.2 Research methods
1.2.1 Literature review
This paper has referred to more than 50 related books at home and abroad and 64 related papers in
CNKI Chinese Journal Full-text Database (http://www.cnki.net) , Wanfang Database, Photocopies
Database of China People’s University, which lays a solid theoretical foundation for the research.
1.2.2 Interview
With issues of current development and prospects of Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports, the project team
interviewed 31 experts in this field, who are either leaders of sports bureaus in Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region or managers of public sports work.
1.2.3 Questionnaire
Based on the questionnaire of Survey and Study on Chinese People’s Current Participation in Sports in
2001[2], a questionnaire of Xinjiang urban and rural multi-ethnic residents’ participation in sports is
designed. The project team goes to every household to send questionnaires. 4000 questionnaires are sent
out and 4000 are taken back, among which 3963 are valid. The effective rate is 87.6%. Among all the
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3963 residents, 1552(20.1%) have participated in sports, and 541(13.7%), i.e.34.9% of sports
participants, have participated in traditional ethnic sports.
1.2.4 Mathematical statistics method
Through basic selection of all the questionnaires, the data got from valid questionnaires are imported
into SPSS 13.0 statistical software for analysis.
1.2.5 PPS sampling
PPS sampling is also known as probability proportional to size sampling. In strict accordance with PPS
sampling method, 16 counties and cities and 1334 residents are selected from all urban and rural areas of
Xinjiang by means of stratified sampling.
2 Investigations on Sports Behavior of Urban and Rural Residents of the Eight
Nationalities
2.1 Frequency of playing traditional ethnic sports
Exercise frequency refers to the times in a certain period of time one finishes body exercise. It decides
the bodybuilding effect and ensures principles of physical exercise [3]. Most residents play traditional
sports 1-3 times a year(53.1%)or 4-6 times 18.7% a year. The average frequency is relatively low.
There are mainly two reasons for this. First, festivals of all nationalities are main occasions for
traditional sports. However, most traditional festivals are celebrated only once a year, such as Nauruz,
Korban, Rozah, and so on. Second, Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports meeting organized by the
government is held only once four years; Kazak Aken gathering is held only once two years; traditional
sports meeting for farmers and herdsmen is held only once a year. In a word, people of all nationalities
have few chances to participate in traditional sports. Governments of all levels in Xinjiang should
strengthen the construction of people’s cultural life and enrich their spiritual world.
（
）
2.2 Exercise duration and physical change after playing traditional ethnic sports
Duration refers to the time the exercise lasts for. Only when the body keeps exercising for a certain
period of time can it have good bodybuilding effects [4]. 57.1 %( the largest proportion) of the urban and
rural residents of the eight nationalities (hereinafter referred to as URREN) keep playing traditional
ethnic sports for more than one hour every time. 13.1 %( the smallest proportion) URREN play them
only for less than 10 minutes (including 10 minutes). 27.2% URREN’s exercise effect is “moderately
sweating” and 12.9% of them feel nothing.
The project team encountered such a case in the process of field investigation. When the team carried
out a survey in Yushburak village, Xinyuan County, Yining City, Xinjiang, a wedding happened to be
held at that time. In order to celebrate the happy event, the bridegroom held a horse racing game on the
Sothern hill of the village. After the game, villagers volunteerly organized a goat-skin snatching game.
These two games lasted for three hours from the noon. Though all villagers were out of breath and
sweating all over the head, it can be ssen from the extraordinarily warm atmosphere and magnificent
scenes that people’s most basic and direct requirements of participating in the traditional sports are
bodybuilding and entertainment value.
2.3 Opportunities and motivations for participating in traditional ethnic sports
It can be seen from Table 1 that the number of subjects who participate in traditional ethnic sports on
relatives’ and friends’ celebrating days and festivals of their nationalities are the largest, respectively 328
and 307. The number of subjects who participate in traditional ethnic sports in company activities and
commercial activities are the smallest, respectively 36 and 5. They are usually very concerned with the
recreation elements of sports contents and require the sports to be held according to the custom of the
nationality. The fact that traditional sports of all nationalities are customarily held on traditional festivals,
wedding days and ritual days shows they are customary and dependent. When the government organizes
activities and entertainment games, traditional sports are not the prior choice yet.
Therefore, the local government and units should strengthen their instruction and demonstration to the
organization of traditional ethnic sports. Survey results also show that, in commercial activities and
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games organized by enterprises, traditional ethnic sports are rare to see. They have not been
commercialized yet. More importance should be attached to their intrinsic quality so as to improve the
foundation and quality of the development of their industry resources and to make them cater for the
change of people’s lifestyle and meet the needs of people’s life interests and culture taste. Only in this
way can traditional sports become popular and profitable.
Table 1 Opportunities and Motivations for Participating in Traditional Ethnic Sports
Opportunities
Number Motivations
Number
Festivals of the nationality
307
Easy or not
149
Relatives’ and friends’ celebrating 328
Interesting or not
259
days
Activities
organized by the 190
Good for heath or not
167
government
Daily entertainment
189
Being held according to customs or not 196
Commercial activities
5
Popular or not
28
Activities organized by enterprises
36
Whether can show your bravery and 153
strength or not
Miscellaneous
7
Miscellaneous
25
2.4 Traditional ethnic sports events participated in
Due to the differences of politics, economy, languages, customs, habits, and natural geographic
environments, every ethnic group in the long development process has formed their own social life
pattern and cultural traditions, created and developed different sports events with their own ethnic
characteristics [5]. Table 2 shows such sports events as horse racing, goat-skin snatching, ethnic wrestling,
back-style tug of war, cock fighting, arm wrestling, archery and girl’s chasing are most popular and
easiest to be held. The participation in other sports items such as martial arts are less.
It indicates that due to the influence of the special geographical environments, climatic conditions and
cultural traditions, such nationalities as Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang
always choose those sports events independent on site conditions and living environments and easy to
be held. Therefore, the full use of these advantageous sports events will help to achieve universal
popularization and improvement of traditional ethnic sports [6].
Table 2 Traditional Sports Items
Sports Events
Number
Sports Events
Horse racing
272
Shahardi
Ethnic wrestling
96
Wood hit
Goat-skin snatching
226
Girl’s chasing
Camel racing
29
Sheep fighting
Archery
23
Crossbow shooting
swing
13
Cock fighting
Martial art
5
Dog fighting
Chess
23
Back-style tug of war
Yajia
2
Archery on horse back
Picking up Hada while riding a horse
11
Arm wrestling
Horse-back wrestling
12
Chasing girls
Picking up silver on horse back
17
Miscellaneous
Number
2
3
18
6
4
34
13
57
3
31
11
107
3 Investigations on URREN’s Attidude to Traditional Sports
3.1 Degree of satisfaction to the organization of traditional ethnic sports
From the survey on URREN’s degree of satisfaction to the organization of traditional ethnic sports, it
can be found that 41.2% of all the research subjects are satisfied with it; 35.9% think it is neither good
nor bad; only 14.8% of them are not satisfied and 7.3% think it is hard to say. The data suggest
traditional ethnic sports are widely supported in multi-ethnic areas in Xinjiang. Governments’ effective
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organization of traditional ethnic sports is not only of great use for intangible cultural heritage protection
of them but also of great significance for the promotion of national unity and harmonious Xinjiang.
3.2 Reasons for attitude and need change of participating in traditional ethnic sports
It can be seen from Table 3 that factors leading to residents’ attitude and need change of participating in
traditional ethnic sports are: life value, living environments, economic conditions, modern ways of
recreation, production and work styles, and modern sports. With the continuous social development, the
change of life value is the main reason for people’s participation in traditional ethnic sports. Better
economic condition is another important reason, which is in line with the fact that the development of
material civilization decides the development spiritual civilization. The better the economy is, the
greater potential the development of sports have; the more developed the society is, the more popular
the sports will be; the richer the life is, the stronger people’s desire for sports will become; the more
leisure time people have, the larger the population involved in sports will grow [7].
Table 3 Reasons for Attitude and Need Change of Participating in Traditional Ethnic Sports
Reasons for attitude and need change
Number
Influence of the change of production and work styles
66
Change of life value
133
Influence of modern ways of recreation, like TV
82
Influence of modern sports
52
Change of economic conditions
124
Change of living environments
130
Miscellaneous
28
3.3 The aspects of traditional ethnic sports that need improving
Research subjects’ suggestions to what to be improved of traditional ethnic sports mainly are:
increasing opportunities for holding sport events and not limiting them to festivals, adding interesting
contents to the sports and making them more recreational, increasing sports’ bodybuilding effects and
strengthening the publicity of sports activities. The option of “promoting commercialization of the
sports to attract more tourists are less chosen, which indicates people’s awareness of developing
traditional festival activities such as Aken gathering and traditional sports such as horse racing into
tourism resources is low. Under the condition of globalization and industrialization, we should reform
traditional sports with modern physical education theories, fully exploit sports resources of all ethnic
groups and change their single self-recreation form so that traditional ethnic sports can become
important investment attractors in the development of local economy and tourism [8] and contribute to
Xinjiang’s cultural and economic construction and social development.
4 Investigation on Reasons for URREN’s not Participating in Traditional Ethnic
Sports
4.1 Reasons restricting residents to participate in traditional ethnic sports
Table 4 shows the three main reasons restricting residents to participate in traditional ethnic sports are
lack of organization, free time and sports grounds. Economic condition, transportation and sports
knowledge have relatively less restrictions to them. As sports organized by enterprises and institutions
are mainly such modern competitive sports as balls and track and field events, urban residents’
participation rate in traditional ethnic sports is small. In the agricultural and pastoral areas, especially in
festival activities, a large number of farmers and herdsmen are involved in traditional ethnic sports. With
the increase of the pressure of modern social life and work, most residents of the eight nationalities are
preoccupied with making a living and lack of time to participate in traditional ethnic sports. In addition,
with the accelerated process of urbanization, the number of grasslands-based and mountains-based
traditional ethnic sports grounds is gradually reduced.
Therefore, we should make full use of national exchanges, traditional festivals, weddings, religious
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ceremonies, business transactions and other activities to organize a variety of traditional sports
competitions and performances such as wrestling, cock fighting, dog fighting, horse racing, camel
racing, archery, Belen dance, goat-skin snatching, girl’s chasing and so on, so as to effectively improve
all people’s participation. We also ought to develop more traditional ethnic sports grounds to meet
people’s needs.
Table 4 Reasons Restricting Residents to Participate in Traditional Ethnic Sports
Reasons
Number
Lack of organization
475
Short of funds
153
Lack of sports grounds
358
Having no knowledge of exercise methods
196
No enough free time
384
Inconvenient transportation
69
Miscellaneous
159
4.2 Attitude towards the development of traditional ethnic sports
There are several different opinions about the development of traditional ethnic sports as are shown by
the results of the survey. Some people think that traditional ethnic sports should be developed with their
original features and flavor reserved. Some people hold that they should be appropriately modified with
their contents kept or be completely reformed according the modern life style. Others believe traditional
ethnic sports are out of date and should be abandoned or they should be left to develop on their own.
Most research subjects think more playgrounds suitable for traditional ethnic sports should be built,
which is consistent with the results of the survey of reasons restricting residents to participate in
traditional ethnic sports. Some other subjects believe the publicity of the knowledge and exercise
methods of traditional sports should be strengthened because only when people have an overall
knowledge of the rules and skills of traditional ethnic sports can they better participate in them.
5 Suggestion
5.1 Traditional ethnic sports should be combined with public sports and school sports
The integration of traditional ethnic sports and nationwide fitness undertakings is the regain of the value
of traditional ethnic sports [9]. Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports are born from people’s practice of
production and living and have become an integral part of their lives. They can not develop without the
wide participation of the people of all ethnic groups. Therefore, we should choose some traditional
ethnic sports which are simple to join in, independent on grounds and facilities and with strong
recreational and bodybuilding effects as representative ones to popularize so as to promote the
development of nationwide fitness undertakings and traditional ethnic sports. Schools are important
places for the promotion of traditional ethnic sports. We should bring traditional ethnic sports into
classes and include representative and popularized ones into text books so that students can appreciate
and enjoy them at school and pass them down to later generations.
5.2 Strengthening the publicity of traditional ethnic sports and industrializing them
At present, traditional ethnic sports events are rarely seen in commercial activities and activities
organized by enterprises and institutions. They are not industrialized yet. So we should conscientiously
implement Sports Industry Development Program issued by State Sports General Administration. With
accurate positioning, flexible promotion, innovative operating systems and favorable policies, we ought
to develop recreational sports tourism centering on Xinjiang International Racecourse with ethnic
characteristics according to the Xinjiang’s special topographical features and ethnic folklore through
overall planning, scientific arrangement and step-by-step implementation. In addition, we can hold some
novel and interesting picture exhibitions of traditional sports with multi-ethnic features to publicize
multi-national sports resources through internet, television, radio, newspaper and other media. It is also
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profitable to hold such enjoyable and recreational sports as horse racing, goat-skin snatching, girl’s
chasing, cock fighting and sheep fighting in all scenic spots in Kanas and Narati to attract more tourists
to experience ethnic life. It is also suggested that specialized traditional sports performance team be
organized to perform in all ethnic folklore villages so as to accelerate the commercialization of
traditional sports and to promote the development of ethnic sports tourism with Xinjiang ethnic
characteristics.
5.3 Building more traditional ethnic sports grounds and prospering traditional sports culture
Now, the key factor restricting residents to participate in traditional ethnic sports is the lack of sports
grounds, so more sports grounds should be built based on the existing local conditions to meet people’s
needs. Building more traditional ethnic sports grounds is good for scientific management of the
development of traditional sports and making multiple uses of them. Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports
grounds are also important places in which people of all ethnic groups can hold various ethnic culture
activities. Traditional ethnic sports are generally held on ethnic festivals, such as girl’s chasing, horse
racing, ethnic-style wrestling in Kazak Aken gathering, Dawaz, cock fighting, sheep fighting in Uygur
Nuoruz Festival, and so on. Therefore, traditional ethnic sports grounds are not only the grounds for
traditional ethnic sports but also the platforms for ethnic culture activities [10].
5.4 Promoting traditional sports theory study and personnel training and making traditional
sports more standardized and scientific
The main problem faced by people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang when participating in traditional
sports is the lack of organization and guidance. Therefore, it needs related theories and competent
specialized personnel to guide the healthy and sustainable development of the traditional sports. The
government of Xinjinag Uygur Autonomous Region can set up traditional ethnic sports research centers
in Xinjiang Normal University, Ili Teachers’ College, Kashgar Teachers’ College to enhance the
development and study of Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports industry and to promote traditional sports
products to the market. We should also train a number of traditional sports instructors with good skills
and solid theory foundations to guide people’ s participation in traditional sports so as to make their
exercises more scientific. In this way, Xinjiang traditional ethnic sports can be socialized and
industrialized. We can, too, set up a traditional ethnic sports protection and heritage research centre in
College of Physical Education of Xinjiang Normal University to train more high-level traditional sports
professionals.
Fund Project:
National Philosophy and Social Science Project (06BTY028)
Author in Brief:
Wu Jie (1956 - ), male, born in Urumqi, Professor, doctoral supervisor.
Research direction: Ethnic sports culture and physical constitution.
E-mail: [email protected],
Tel: 13609935114
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