I just returned from a packed stadium, where I watched the elaborate opening ceremonies for a multiday sports event featuring young athletes competing in running, jumping and throwing events.
The pageantry included a parade of teams wearing colorful uniforms, choreographed routines, music, welcoming speeches and the playing of the home country’s national anthem. There were exhibitions of fan dancing, stick fighting and tai chi, all precisely performed by students at Henan University of Technology.
It looked and felt a lot like the Olympics, but it was actually the start of my university’s annual sports meet, a two-day extravaganza that shuts down the school and gives students a well-earned break from their rigorous academic life.
These sports meets are a tradition at Chinese universities, a chance for students to celebrate pleasant spring weather and enjoy outdoor activities with their classmates and teachers. Events include running, high jumping, triple jumping, the shot put, tug of war, Frisbee throwing, rope skipping and basketball shooting. Competitors wear different uniforms to represent their schools within the university (foreign languages, architecture, agriculture, etc.), but they can win individual gift certificates.
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The opening day was gorgeous, with sunny skies, a comfortable breeze and highs in the mid-70s. The stands at the sports stadium were filled and, counting all the performers, athletes, school officials and spectators, I’d estimate there were about 8,000 people there.
A Chinese phys-ed teacher I know told me about 2,800 students were participating in the event, which is about 10 percent of the student body. The athletes and performers have been practicing for weeks. I know because at night I’ve been hearing them doing their military-style exercises not far from my apartment complex.
Following the opening ceremony, which included marching groups chanting “Study harder,’’ several student journalists interviewed me for the school newspaper. They asked me what I thought of the spectacle, and I told them I was very impressed. They seem pleased and took a photo of me with three of my teaching colleagues.
Teachers compete in events as well as students. As a member of the Foreign Languages squad, I participated in basketball, Frisbee and rope skipping. The less said about rope skipping the better, but I won the Frisbee and basketball contests. I must admit, however, that most of the teachers looked as if they had never shot a basketball or thrown a Frisbee before.
I also introduced the teachers to a new Frisbee-throwing technique. All of them were holding the disc flat and in front of their bodies before flicking their wrist, producing consistently poor results. I showed them a new method, where you hold the Frisbee vertically at your side and then snap your wrist in a clockwise motion, which provides more power and a straighter line. They were so impressed by my throws that I was besieged with requests for lessons. Next time I come to China, I may work as a Frisbee teacher.
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I also noticed some odd techniques in other events.
Many of the shot putters threw the ball with a baseball pitcher’s motion instead of the traditional lunging thrust, while most of the female high jumpers skipped over the bar in an upright position rather than flopping over it backwards. Of course, this was only possible because the bar was just three-feet high.
One other strange site: On a sidewall of the stadium, I saw a cartoonish graffiti drawing of a dark-skinned youngster wearing a baseball cap with the bill turned up. Next to him was the caption “Yo! Nigga.’’ I’m guessing it was drawn by some rap-loving students who had heard the expression in a song. I doubt there was any racist intention since most students here know very little about black people, apart from entertainers, athletes and President Obama.
I saw a lot of my students at the sports meet. Some were competing, but most were taking photos, watching or working as organizers at booths set up outside the stadium. One student noted that everyone got the day off from school to attend the event. “I like your class,’’ she said, “but this is more fun.’’
