Competitors wearing brightly colored silk robes leap, kick and slice through the air to demonstrate the perfection of their intricately choreographed moves.
That is, of course, until they start doing what is called “sanshou.” Then they go for the knockout.
Mixing Bruce Lee-style techniques with ancient Chinese combinations, martial artists from around the region traded punches, kicks, throws and leg sweeps in wushu’s Asia Games finale Wednesday for the crowd-pleasing sport’s last seven golds — and, for the Chinese, maybe a shot at the action-movie business.
The host nation is so dominant in wushu that it deliberately limited the number of athletes and disciplines it entered so that other countries would have a chance at medals. Going into the final day, China had won five golds, to one apiece for Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia.
China added another four to close the competition. Taking the finals that had no Chinese competitors in them were three Iranians — Khadijeh Azadpour in the women’s 60-kilogram sanshou class, Mohsen Mohammadseifi in the men’s 60-kilogram class and Hamidreza Gholupour topping the 70-kilogram division.
Though the other women wore shorts and tank tops under their pads, Azadpour fought in a full sweatsuit with a scarf beneath her protective helmet.
China introduced wushu to the Asia Games in 1990 and is actively promoting the sport worldwide as a Chinese cultural counterbalance to such globally established Asian martial arts as Japan’s karate and judo and South Korea’s taekwondo.
“Wushu is special,” said E Meidie, who won the women’s 52-kilogram sanshou class. “It uses the whole range of techniques more than judo or taekwondo. There are only a few foreigners who understand wushu 100 percent. But I think they will get better.” Judging from the Asia Games results, that may take awhile.
“I only started competing in sanshou this year,” said 60-kilogram bronze medalist Wu Tsu Yi, of Taiwan, who had to fight with four stitches and possibly a broken toe after her semifinal the day before against an opponent from Afghanistan. “There are few female competitors in Taiwan in this event.” Scrappy and fast-paced, sanshou — which pits a pair of athletes on a raised ring for two rounds marked by gongs — offers a sharp contrast to the dance-like grace and agility that dominates its other divisions. To the crowd’s disappointment, there were no knockouts Wednesday, but there were lots of head-jarring jabs and wrestling-style takedowns.
Wushu is the granddaddy of martial arts.
It dates back to times before the fabled Shaolin Temple, which was founded in the 5th century and became a legendary training ground for warrior monks.
And while participation abroad is limited, wushu is no stranger to big audiences the world over.
Possibly the best-known of all wushu stars, action hero Jet Li, was a five-time Chinese national wushu champion, getting his start on the Beijing Wushu Team. Wu Jing, another Chinese movie star, got his start on the Beijing team and went on to marquee roles in Hong Kong fight films Fatal Contact in 2006 and Invisible Target in 2007.
The actor who played Darth Maul in the Star Wars movies was also a wushu expert and showcased its moves in the film’s fight scenes.
Such a future was not far from the minds of some of the competitors at the Asia Games.
Hong Kong’s He Jingde, a silver medalist in the all-around competition on Monday, works as a stuntman for kung fu movies, and the winner of that event said he drew his inspiration as a child from watching Jackie Chan flicks — a recent Chan movie was called simply “Wushu!” The winner of the Games’ first gold, 22-year-old Yuan Xiaochao, has floated the idea of one day working in film, and says his idols are Bruce Lee and Jet Li. After winning his gold, however, Yuan said he is happy fighting in competition — not on the big screen — for the time being.
