The Application Of Chinese Martial Arts Performance At The Opening Ceremony In Big Games

As a national traditional sport, Chinese Wushu is the carrier ofthe traditional Chinese culture, and has a deep content. It now attracts the attention ofthe world with its unique charm and its openness in today’s society where the culturalexchange and merge are undergoing. The combination of Chinese Wushu and the groupcalisthenics is the reflection of its value and its function. Since the ancient time, theelement of Wushu has been melted into the large-scale sport competitions, for instance,Grand Wushu Dance in Shang and Zhou dynasties, and Character Dance and FlowerDance in Tang and Song dynasties. During the period of the Republic of China,2,360primary students gave the Taichiquan performance, which makes a beginning ofcombining Chinese Wushu and the group calisthenics in Fifth National SportCompetition. Until now, Wushu appears frequently in all kinds of group calisthenics inopening ceremonies of large-scale sports competitions. Wushu performances in groupcalisthenics are the close combination of Wushu and arts, which shows the mentaloutlook of Chinese nation, and promotes traditional culture. It is an important approachof developing Wushu and of great significance of the sustainable development ofWushu.Therefore, this thesis conducts a comprehensive and thorough study on thebackground and the reasons of the use of Wushu in opening ceremonies, the meetingpoint of Wushu and Group Calisthenics, the use of elements of Wushu in groupcalisthenics, and the value of combination of Wushu and group calisthenics, by usingthe basic theories and methods of semeiology, communication science, sports aestheticsand Wushu discipline and the logical analysis, literature study, experts interview, videorecording analysis and individual cases analysis. The author chooses it as the researchcontent the Wushu performances in the group calisthenics of opening ceremonies of thefifth and sixth National Games of old China, the first to thirteenth National Games ofnew China, eleventh Asian Games, twenty-first Universiade, twenty-ninth OlympicGames, and the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Tsing-Hua University.By summarizing and analyzing the social background and need of the use ofWushu elements into group calisthenics of ceremonies, the thesis finds out that thereasons and value of this use develop with the ages and time, the main thought of theelements are close to the background of ages and the social development, the way of expressing and content develop gradually from the single way to the comprehensiveway, and traditional culture and world culture are closely integrated.The key case study shows that the value of the use of Wushu differs from eachother in group calisthenics of ceremonies of different natures, namely, thegovernment-oriented one mainly shows the sprits and culture of its country and itsregion, while campus-oriented one expresses the spirit of the school and the students’qualities.The combination of Wushu and group calisthenics blends together thecharacteristics and functions of them, so the value is diversified. The author holds thatits values mainly are expressed in culture, education, communication and aesthetics.Under the background of cultural diversity, economic globalization, and socialtransformation period, the mode of the two approaches is the new way of developingand promoting Wushu.As the new mode of developing Wushu in the society of cultural diversity, showingWushu in the way of group calisthenics is based on the current situation of thedevelopment of Wushu and aims to go further and better, thereby, on the one hand, thesubject of patriotism which has the perpetual significances should be merged into theperformance, so as to show the national excellent traits, and on the other, the traditionaloriginal element of Wushu should also be merged into, so as to made the world knowChinese Wushu.