EARLY in the morning in Hangzhou's parks, children and foreigners join local wushu enthusiasts to learn the latest martial arts techniques. Xu Wenwen reports. Wushu, or Chinese martial arts, is becoming increasingly popular among children and young people in Hangzhou. Moreover, tai chi, which used to be thought of as a slow-paced activity suitable only for the elderly in order to maintain good health, is also gaining more attention of young people.

At this year's Zhejiang International Traditional Wushu Tournament which ended on August 2, more than 2,000 competitors - 40 percent of the total - were under 18.

"The tournament had divisions for children, youth, middle-aged and elderly," says Chief Referee Zheng Ying.

"It set many awards, of which the prizes amounted to 180,000 yuan (US$26,347), in order to encourage more competitors to attend."

Hangzhou couple Zheng and her husband, Xu Weiguo, teach at the No. 2 Park of West Lake every morning except when it rains or snows. Xu teaches Shaolin style and Zheng teaches tai chi.

All the way from the No. 1 Park (at the beginning of Nanshan Road, opposite the JZ bar) to the No. 6 Park (at the sculpture of the volunteer soldier), there are a dozen of groups teaching traditional sports such as tai chi and mulan sword (a soft sword sport usually for women) every morning. But Zheng and Xu's is the only one that features children, young people and foreign students.

Xu, who is over 50 and has learned Shaolin kung fu since three years old, says: "We started teaching wushu in the 1990s with fewer than 10 students, but from 2000, we got more students including children, youths and foreigners.

"Therefore, we started to learn English to teach foreigners as well and we opened a holiday class especially for children," Xu says. "My finest foreign student, Bruce, is from England, and he has won a gold medal at a tai chi championship in the United Kingdom," says Zheng, "He keeps coming and learning every year.

"I've taught nearly 600 foreign students over the past three years."

China has five main tai chi schools and the two most popular traditional family styles are Yang and Chen.

The oldest and parent form of tai chi, Chen style, is characterized by its lower stances, more explicit chan si jing (silk reeling) and fa jing (bursts of power) - tending to retain the original martial arts characteristics more - while Yang style focuses more on health because of its slow, steady, expansive and soft movements.

Today, tai chi is typically practiced for a number of widely varying reasons: health, martial arts skills, aesthetics, meditation and as a competitive sport.

At the Zhejiang tournament, a team which performed the newly invented Huaiyuan tai chi, has attracted wide attention and got 42 gold medals, 14 silver and two bronze with only 24 athletes, most of them under 30 and the youngest 9.

"Tai chi is also a sort of wushu, contains fist routines and weapon routines, it looks slow but is actually aggressive," says Chen Xiaowu, the initiator of Huaiyuan tai chi and head coach of the team.

As a descendant of the Chen family, Chen learned tai chi in the Chen style from the age of 6. After practicing it for more than 30 years, he invented the new style over the past few years.

"The Huaiyuan tai chi combines both essences of external style boxing (wai jia quan) and soft style boxing (nei jia quan)," Chen says. "It is a new development of Chen style tai chi, teaching people combative techniques and health preserving skills."

I tried to push hands, a two-person training routine, with Chen, a strong and muscular man weighing 100 kilograms and 170 centimeters tall.

Within two seconds, Chen used a very slight hand movement, pushing me 3 meters away and causing me to fall to the ground.

"That's tai chi's internal force - keep the enemy away without hurting," smiles Zheng.
She is also teaching Huaiyuan tai chi, and is the only one who teaches that particular style in Hangzhou.

Carol Daupan, a Filipino who works in Hangzhou, is learning Huaiyuan tai chi with Zheng, and won a gold medal in the discipline at the Zhejiang tournament.

Giving her reasons for taking up kung fu, which could apply to the majority of foreign martial arts students, she says: "I love Jackie Chan and kung fu movies."

As a member of China Wushu Association and a national first-class referee, Zheng says: "Wushu is a precious intangible cultural heritage, and it's also international.

"I hope more and more young people both home and abroad will like it, learn it and can spread it across the whole world."