'Modern China, Classic Sports’: Classic Chinese Calisthenics & Sports

"Classic Chinese Calisthenics" is a set of movements that combines fitness, entertainment and health care functions, which meets the current needs of the public for health and wellness and has the potential to be popularized by all.

Some time ago, CGTN released Classic Chinese Calisthenics, which successfully set off a wave of Chinese-style radio gymnastics craze.

More than that, the release of the traditional culture experience program Classic Chinese Sports has brought more people's attention to traditional Chinese sports.

By exploring modern expressions of traditional sports such as Cuju (蹴鞠), archery, swing, Jiazhou (甲胄, armor), and Kongzhu (Diabolo, 空竹), "Classic Chinese Sports" allows viewers to immerse themselves in the charm of traditional sports.

Such a cultural atmosphere echoes the arrival of the Tokyo Olympics, with certain social communication significance and international exchange value.

Traditional culture innovation in integration

Taking the traditional culture from the Zhou Li (周礼) to the present as a reference, "Classic Chinese Calisthenics" encompasses Ya Yue dance style, Han-Tang style, Dunhuang style, opera style, Wing Chun style, Changquan style, Tai Chi style, and other moves, reflecting the tolerance and diversity of traditional culture between rigidity and flexibility.

Specifically, "Classic Chinese Calisthenics" breaks away from a single scene and switches between indoor and outdoor scenes such as ancient gardens, playgrounds, and studio halls, avoiding monotony in the scenes and enhancing the good looks of the content, while also highlighting the inclusiveness of the location and the suitability of both young and old.

Take section 8, Tai Chi Style, for example. Tai Chi Chuan is originally a traditional Chinese boxing movement that is both internal and external, soft and light, rigid and flexible, and incorporates representative Tai Chi movements into the calisthenics, which have the effect of stretching the meridians, strengthening the heart and lung function, and regulating the breath.

Combining traditional culture with modern radio gymnastics, "Classic Chinese Calisthenics" is quite elaborate in its design, condensing Chinese history and culture between one move and one stance, meaning to show that Chinese civilization has never stopped innovating and inheriting, and each period has its unique cultural characteristics.

Because of this, Classic Chinese Calisthenics, which combines many traditional elements, has a long-term significance in terms of cultural heritage.

Enriching the cultural connotation of Chinese style

"Classic Chinese Calisthenics" has laid a good cultural atmosphere for the official launch of "Classic Chinese Sports".

The program focuses on five major sports, Cuju, archery, swing, Jiazhou, and Kongzhu, combining professional traditional sports athletes and groups to showcase their projects and present the historical stories as well as interesting ways to play these traditional sports in an all-round way by means of out-takes + artist studio experience + on-site knowledge interpretation by authoritative experts.

From a single episode, the main focus is to popularize the knowledge of traditional sports, for example, the first episode not only shares the development history of the sport of Cuju, but also explains several Cuju moves in detail, such as Around the World, Crossover, Instep Juggling, Head Stall, Flick Up, Neck Stall, Upper 360, Knee Juggling, allowing viewers to understand the sport from the surface to the inside.

In addition, the program also includes in-depth restoration of traditional sports scenes.

In the episode of "Traditional Chinese Archery", the arrangement of several arrow formations is highly restored by means of outdoor shooting short films, which activates the curiosity and interest of the public about ancient characteristic sports.

"Classic Chinese Sports" follows the trend of content and users' fragmented viewing, combining the two elements of Chinese style and sports games, fully exploiting the cultural charm of traditional sports, focusing on highlighting the fun and historical connotation of sports, thus unlocking the modern expression of traditional sports in a fun and educational way, and allowing viewers to build up their knowledge and confidence in Chinese culture.

It can be seen that "Classic Chinese Sports" has successfully found a way to promote traditional sports, which will become a great reference for promoting traditional culture in the future.