A typical wushu competition, here represented by the 10th All-China Games.
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Also known as | Kung fu, CMA, WS |
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Focus | Striking, Grappling, Throwing, Performance Martial Art |
Country of origin | China |
Famous practitioners | Jet Li, Wu Bin, Ray Park, Jon Foo, Wu Jing, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Yuan Wen Qing, Cung Le, Dan Hardy, Pat Barry, Michelle Waterson, Andrei Stoica, Johnny Yong Bosch, Alfred Hsing, Vincent Zhao, Dennis To, Liu Hailong, Huang Zitao, Caity Lotz |
Olympic sport | No - but recognized by the IOC |
Wushu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Wushu" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese | 武術 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 武术 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "Martial arts" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | wǔshù |
Wade–Giles | wu3-shu4 |
IPA | [ù.ʂû] |
Wu | |
Suzhounese | vû-zéh |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | móuh-seuht |
Jyutping | mou5-seot6 |
Southern Min | |
Tâi-lô | bú-su̍t |
Wushu (Chinese: wushu; simplified Chinese: 武术; traditional Chinese: 武術; pinyin: wǔshù) is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. It was developed in China after 1949, in an effort to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts, although attempts to structure the various decentralized martial arts traditions date back earlier, when the Central Guoshu Institute was established at Nanking in 1928. The term wushu is Chinese for "martial arts" (武 "Wu" = military or martial, 术 "Shu" = art). In contemporary times, wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years; the first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing and won by Yuan Wen Qing.
Competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu (套路; forms) and sanda (散打; sparring).
Taolu involves martial art patterns and maneuvers for which competitors are judged and given points according to specific rules. The forms comprise basic movements (stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps and throws) based on aggregate categories of traditional Chinese martial art styles and can be changed for competitions to highlight one's strengths. Competitive forms have time limits that can range from 1 minute, 20 seconds for some external styles to over five minutes for internal styles. Modern wushu competitors are increasingly training in aerial techniques such as 540-, 720-, and even 900-degree jumps and kicks to add more difficulty and style to their forms.