Regional Culture Horizon, Shanxi "Flexible Sheep" Activities Of Exploration

The Xinzhou city of Shanxi province, which located in the Loess Plateau, has retained a unique cultural phenomenon that all people regardless of age and sex are infatuated with an ancient sport named Naoyang. It is a special kind of wrestling match in which the winner will get a sheep as a prize. From the perspective of regional culture, the regional cultural features of Xinzhou city as well as the important sport activity here---naoyang Match will be discussed. As an entry point, the study will provide a useful supplement to the research on regional culture of Sanjin (another name for Shanxi Province) and further enrich the research on regional sports culture.There are many methods used in this study, which mainly focuses on literature, expert interviews, field operations, comparison method and so on. This research has systematically studied the historical, commercial and the cultural background of the Naoyang activities originated from Xinzhou of Shanxi province and their three different stages of historical evolution as well as the current status of two different types. In addition, the contrast and comparison of the Naoyang activities, Mongolian Bock and the wrestle game are compared from three aspects of costume, game features and the rules of the game. Some novel views in this research are as follows First, the Naoyang activities are universal and entertaining and easy to learn for the rule, while challenging, thrilling, and exciting for competitiveness. Second, on one hand, the traditional type of the Naoyang activities cultivate the soil for the modern activities and train the reserve talents required for modern sports to promote the development of modern sports. What’s more, modern Naoyang activities also led to the rapid development of the traditional activities, whose cultural identity, on the other hand, is suppressed by the modern type. Third, the hollow trend in their heritage and the development process of the village lead to the rapidly dynamic deletion of the Naoyang to some extent. It is an inherent factor that causes the reduction in the number of organizing occasions and the participants. However, the dominated hegemony of the modern sports has also hindered the operation of activities and fund accumulation, which result in the rapid decline in the phenomenon of attention Naoyang. Fourth, it is essential to deliver a marketing plan for all scales of Naoyang activities to create a wrestling brand with its own characteristics and develop the activities from a commercial point. The Naoyang activities should be brought into the local educational system for the purpose of cultivating more reserved talents. What’ s more Naoyang activities should also be effectively combined with the local sports tourism.