In October 1991, the First World Wushu Championships were held in Beijing. A total of 500-plus athletes from 40 countries and regions took part in wushu routines and free-boxing competitions. The championships are held biennially.
In August 1993, the First Annual National Wushu Hometown Competition was held in Wenxian county, Henan. The competition is held biennially.
In October 1996, the Third Annual National Farmers’ Games was held in Shanghai, and Wushu was listed as competitive event.
In May 1999, the First International Traditional Wushu and Stunt Competition was held in Taizhou, Zhejiang.
In July 2002, the First World Cup Wushu Freeboxing Competition was held in Shanghai. The competition is held biennially.
In February 2006, the First International Wushu Fighting King Competition was held in Chongqing. The competition is held annually.
In July 2009, the Eighth Annual World Games were held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and wushu was listed as an official event.
For a long time, wushu enthusiasts and supporters have been working hard, hoping to witness the entry of the several-thousand-year-old sports into the Olympic family.
As early as 1936, Chinese wushu made its Olympic Games debut at Berlin. The Chinese Wushu Performance Group, consisting of Zhang Wenguang, Wen Jingming, Zheng Huaixian, Jin Shisheng, Zhang Erding, Kou Yunxing, Zhai Lianyuan, Fu Shuyun, and Liu Yuhua et al, conquered western audiences with their splendid performance in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin and other cities in Germany.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government sent wushu delegations abroad to visit and give wushu performances, expanding the influence of wushu in the world arena.
In October 1984, the Chinese Wushu Association invited heads of wushu organizations in 12 countries and regions including France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States to hold an international wushu symposium in Wuhan, discussing the further development of wushu around the world and other issues, and jointly signed a memorandum. Everyone agreed to establish an international wushu organization led by China as soon as possible.
In August 1985, the Preparatory Committee for the International Wushu Federation (IWF) was formally established in Xi’an. Subsequently, the representatives of the five member states—China, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Singapore —held the first meeting, electing Xu Cai as the director of the Preparatory Committee. The Secretariat of the Preparatory Committee was located in Beijing, China.
In October 1990, IWF was established and headquartered in Beijing.
After the establishment of the IWF, World Wushu Championships were held every two years. The First World Wushu Championships were held in Beijing in October 1991.
In October 1994, the 28th International Sports Federation was held in Monaco, and IWF was accepted as a formal member. In June 1999, the IWF was temporarily recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In December 2001, IWF signed an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In February 2002, the 113th Plenary Meeting of the IOC adopted the decision to officially recognize the IWF, and wushu to become a sports event. Now IWF has 120 member countries and regions in five continents.
After Beijing’s successful bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, the IWF submitted in December 2001 the formal application to IOC to include wushu in the Olympic events, and the application won great support of the ICO. The IOC agreed to take wushu as a performance event at the 2008 Olympic Games, setting a total of 15 events, 10 gold medals for routines and five gold medals for free-boxing.
The competition was held in Beijing from Aug. 21 to Aug. 24, 2008. Some 128 athletes from 43 countries and regions joined the competition, and the Chinese team ranked first with eight gold medals.
It is only a start that wushu became a performance event. To become an official Olympic event, wushu still has a long way to go.
Folk Wushu Development
Over thousands of years, wushu has been spreading silently, and growing firmly on the vast land of China. With social development, wushu gains its development with access to colleges and competition arenas. In the modern society, wushu, a traditional Chinese sport, is showing the trend of diversified development. However, the most colorful, dynamic, and vital is the folk traditional wushu—the root of the development of Chinese wushu. The Chinese government has always attached great importance to the mining, sorting, inheritance and development of folk wushu.
In November 1953, the National Folk Sports Performance and Competition was held in Tianjin, marking the first of its kind after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. A total of 145 athletes joined the performance and competition of 332 events including Chinese boxing, wushu weapons, fights, and short weapons, serving as a significant display of folk wushu.
In September 1958, the Chinese Wushu Association was established in Beijing, followed by other provinces and municipalities. Folk wushu is also included in the management of the Chinese Wushu Association.
