Traditional Martial Arts In Datong-an Investigation Of The Current Status And Development Strategies

With a well established and long standing history, traditional Chinese martial arts havebeen known for profoundness and are magnificent treasures of the Chinese nation. TraditionalChinese martial arts and traditional Chinese culture share the same root; they have jointlybuilt a rich life for the Chinese people in thousands of years, and have become therepresentatives of the Chinese nation, a symbol of national spirit and integrity.However, China’s feudal society gradually fell into decline since the Opium Wars, andthe imperialist powers continuously carried out a variety of encroachments to our country.The encroachments are not only on the material level such as ceding territory and payingindemnities; western culture has also followed to spread around and penetrate the vast land ofChina. Consequently, the loss of traditional culture has increasingly intensified. Ourtraditional martial arts also began to decline as a result of the intrusion of western competitivesports.After the founding of new China, especially after the reform and opening up,globalization rapidly spread in China. Traditional martial arts have encountered manydifficulties in survival and development in the context of globalization and have graduallyfallen in the trough. Now that Chinese culture is going toward the revival, development andprotection of traditional martial arts will spur the inheritance of traditional cultural as well asimprove world’s understanding of the Chinese culture. It is not only meaningful inpromoting the martial arts, but also in demonstrating the Chinese culture to the world andrealizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese traditional culture.This paper studies the 12 counties (Datong County, Yanggao, Zuoyun, Tianzhen,Hunyuan, Lingqiu, Guangling, South Suburban District, Xinrong District, the development zone, the inner cities and the mining zone) in the administrative territory of Datong City byconducting a literature review and using multiple scientific research methods including fieldsurveys, questionnaires, and logic analysis. The paper investigates the current situation andpotential problems of traditional martial arts in Datong area. In addition, the paper discusseshow traditional martial arts can be reasonably inherited and developed in modern Datong.Finally, the paper proposed a few targeted measures and policy suggestions based on thequestionnaire data, putting forward a theoretical basis for the long-term development oftraditional martial arts in Datong.