Ethnic China
My Gemer (”mate” in Beijing dialect) Bill from Brave Fighting Championships sent me a link today to this photo.
It is a photographic catalog of China’s 56 different ethnic groups and you can see it here at China Hush (which is also an interesting site worth watching)
Yes, being Chinese is not so simple. And creating ethnic harmony is just as complicated. Many years ago I learned that China’s population is 91.5% Han Chinese, with the other 55 ethnic groups making up the other 8.5%. But the kicker for the Han Chinese is that that ethnic 8.5% control slash occupy over 60% of China’s landmass. So, it’s a senstive political situation as you can imagine. The Wall Street Journal describe the situation here
Many of China’s ethnic groups have their own forms of wrestling. Foremost in most people’s minds is the wrestling tradition of the Mongols. you might remember seeing some posts on Mongolian Wrestling here before. In fact, most Chinese people here in Beijing ask me: “Is that like Mongolian Wrestling?” after I tell them I practice Chinese Wrestling. Sad but true. However, I do admit that the influence of Mongol and Manchu wrestling traditions on modern day Shuaijiao is undeniable.
Interestingly, the photograph of the Mongolian Family includes 2 Mongolian wrestlers - on the far right - wearing the traditional wrestling attire found in Inner Mongolia. Big boys! And these boys can make money too. It is not uncommon to hear about Mongol wrestlers who wrestle professionally in Inner Mongolia and make 300,000 Yuan per year in prize money.
I’ll explore that more in a future post.
Keep Smilin’
Michael
