The Wushu Department, the predecessor of China Wushu School of Beijing Sport University, was established in August 1958, and renamed China Wushu School (Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Sports) in December 2018. China Wushu School has four teaching and research offices (Teaching and Research Office of Wushu Routine, Teaching and Research Office of Wushu Sanda, Teaching and Research Office of Sports and Health Preservation (Daoyin Yangshenggong Center), and Teaching and Research Office of National Folk Sports), four research centers (Wushu Culture Research Center, Wushu Training Competition Research Center, International Wushu Development Research Center, and Traditional Sports Rehabilitation Research Center), one laboratory (Traditional Yangshenggongfa Exercise Intervention Laboratory), and two bases (Dragon & Lion Dance Training Base of General Administration of Sport of China; Scientific Research Base of Wushu of General Administration of Sport of China). There are now 5 doctoral supervisors, 6 international referees, 13 national referees, and 35 full-time teachers, including 9 professors, 12 associate professors and 14 lecturers. In addition, there are 781 students (including 9 foreign students), including 562 undergraduates and 176 postgraduates (24 doctoral students and 14 foreign students).
Traditional Chinese Sports is a national key discipline in China Wushu School. In 2019, Wushu and Traditional Chinese Sports was successfully selected as a national first-class undergraduate major. In the same year, the Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Sports (China Wushu School) was officially selected as a source think tank of Chinese Think Tank Index (CTTI).
When Beijing Sport University (formerly the Central Institute of Physical Education) was founded newly in 1953, Zhang Wenguang, the great master of wushu, began to form a team of Wushu teachers for teaching, training and scientific research. With the continuous development of wushu specialty and discipline, BSU set up the Wushu Department according to the national requirements in August 1958, and enrolled the first batch of students majoring in Wushu Theory and Methods for postgraduate education. Zhang Wenguang became the first postgraduate supervisor of Wushu in China. Professor Zhang Guangde created “Daoyin Yangshenggong” in the 1970s, and won the National Sports Science and Technology Progress Award in 1992. In 1996, “Daoyin Yangshenggong” was identified by the state as one of the first national fitness program promotion projects. Now it has been spread to nearly 70 countries and regions around the world. In the 1980s, Professor Men Huifeng wrote the Shaolin Wushu Textbook after organizing teachers to excavate and sort out the essence of Shaolin Wushu. The original “Mount Tai Tai-Chi” performed on Mount Tai with the sunrise in the early 21st century shows the wisdom of Tai-Chi to the people of the world.
In the sixty years since the establishment of China Wushu School (formerly the Wushu Department), the Teaching and Research Office of Wushu Routine has always explored traditional Wushu and its cultural connotations with continuous inheritance and innovation, and continued to optimize professional structure, improve curriculum settings and standardize the creation of teaching materials, in order to gradually build a discipline system that can achieve the goal of training the talents with both ability and political integrity in line with the requirements of modern society, adapt to the modern and international development and lead the development of Wushu. The Teaching and Research Office of Wushu Sanda actively expands the specialty direction with Sanda as the main course, and has successively set up the “Wushu Combat” courses that fully reflect the unarmed and armed fighting in the wushu combat, the Mixed Martial Arts courses that comprehensively reflect various techniques of martial arts, the “Self-defense” courses for the general public, and the “Short Weapons” courses that reflect armed fighting in martial arts, forming a relatively complete curriculum system. The Teaching and Research Office of Sports and Health Preservation has committed itself to the disciplinary research with the teaching, scientific research and promotion of Daoyin Qigong, Health Qigong and Health Preservation Tai Chi as the main task, played an important role in spreading traditional culture, promoting health of the people and advancing the development of the fitness industry, and created “Health Qigong · Ba Duan Jin”, “Health Qigong · Shi Er Duan Jin”、“ Health Qigong · Twelve Methods of Daoyin Yangshenggong”, “Research on Cardio Exercise Prescription of Health Qigong”, and “Development of Popular Science Textbook on Health Preservation of Emperor Qianlong” which enjoy a good reputation and have an important influence in the field of sports and health preservation at home and abroad. The Teaching and Research Office of National Folk Sports has committed itself to the integration of ethnic culture, folklore, traditional moral theories and modern educational concepts, explored the original ecological traditional Chinese sports starting from excavating and sorting out traditional Chinese sports to fully protect the intangible cultural heritage of traditional Chinese sports, published 26 textbooks, presided over and participated in 12 national key scientific research projects, and won 12 scientific research awards. At present, China Wushu School is training multi-level and high-quality versatile elite talents including undergraduates, postgraduates, high-level athletes and foreign students majoring in Wushu and Traditional Chinese Sports.
In the sixty years since its establishment, China Wushu School has always been responsible for inheriting the wushu culture and carrying forward the national spirit. It has successively participated in the formulation of wushu routines and Sanda competition rules organized by the state, the creation of Wushu Changquan (long boxing) and Tai Chi competition routines, and the creation of technological and theoretical system of Wushu Sanda sports, the establishment of rank system of Chinese martial arts and the compilation of Chinese martial arts school textbooks, successfully completing a number of national martial arts research tasks, and making outstanding contributions to the inheritance, development and publicity of Chinese martial arts. In the 1980s, China Wushu School comprehensively promoted the international cultural exchanges of traditional Chinese sports based on domestic research and oversea needs. It has successfully held the 13th International Wushu Competition Exchange Conference of Beijing Sport University and the 14th International Competition of Daoyin Yangshenggong, and successively trained nearly 1,000 international students in the long-term and short-term manners. The teachers of China Wushu School have visited more than 80 countries and regions in the past sixty years for martial arts teaching and training, international competition ruling, academic lecture exchange and promotion of Health Qigong. The teachers and students have repeatedly followed General Secretary Xi Jinping and other leaders of the CPC and the state for martial arts performances for foreign leaders, demonstrating the unique charm of Chinese martial arts and carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture. In 2019, China Wushu School participated in 17 international and domestic competitions, and won 79 gold medals, 48 silver medals and 26 bronze medals.
In the new historical period, China Wushu School firmly takes the ideal and faith of socialism with Chinese characteristics as its theoretical guidance, adheres to “inheritance and promotion, and innovation and sharing” in combination with the comprehensive reform of BSU for “three transformations”, and promotes the connotative development of professional disciplines with the “international, competitive, modern and popular” development as the goal, the talent training as the foundation, and the high-quality education, teaching, scientific research and training of teachers as the core, in order to place equal emphasis on academic education and skills training of students, and cultivate outstanding traditional Chinese sports talents with a sense of historical mission to achieve the dream of the Chinese nation in terms of national strength and health.
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