Huajian
01 · Historical Records
It was founded by Mu Chengliang during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty and has a history of more than 140 years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mu-style huajian (flower shuttlecock) kicking is an ethnic-minority traditional sport that originated in and is popular in Tianmu Village, Beichen District, Tianjin. For generations, Mu-style huajian practitioners have often made friends through shuttlecock kicking and compared skills with one another. Mu-style huajian has spread to neighboring provinces, and it also has practitioners in France, Spain, Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Australia, Bulgaria and other countries. Tianmu Village sits on the left bank of the North Canal of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Influenced by canal culture, the village has historically produced a number of families renowned for martial arts, swimming, judo and shuttlecock kicking, making it a celebrated hometown of sports. Mu-style huajian has distinctive performance techniques and a technical style all its own. Scoring is conducted in the form of "net-separated competition," with a rich variety of patterns: flat kicks with free-form flourishes, liao kicks in which one foot never touches the ground, dian kicks alternating between the two feet, and relay kicks in which one or more players take turns kicking one or several shuttlecocks, among other forms. At the same time, it combines dance, athletics and aerobics with shuttlecock kicking, incorporating rope jumping, handkerchief twirling and ribbon dancing into the performance, with emphasis on performing skill. It stresses solid fundamentals and set routines; in practice, emphasis is placed on the "eighteen fan'r" — such as bian, ben'r and kuan'r — and the "eight basic skills" such as pan, ke and guai, giving it a distinctive performance repertoire. In training and performance, practitioners wear traditional Hui costume in white with blue borders and cloud-shaped corner appliqués, a white Hui cap on the head, and black corduroy shoes, giving it a strongly ethnic character. With its strongly ethnic character, it combines stability and agility in sport, uniting exercise and spectacle in one, and plays a positive role in strengthening ethnic unity, social stability and community integration, as well as in promoting cultural exchange.
The eighteen fan'er
The eighteen colloquially named essentials of Mu-style shuttlecock practice, at the core of its training.
The eight fundamentals: pan, ke, guai
The basic drills of Mu-style kicking, built on the pan, ke and guai foot techniques and their variations.
Counting across a net
The distinctive way Mu-style players count and compete across a net, singly or in rotation with one or several shuttles.
The shuttle manual and grading rules
The manual and grading rules compiled by the inheritors to give practitioners a reference and a ladder of promotion.
Hui costume and white cap
The Hui dress worn in practice and performance: cloud-trimmed blue-on-white robes, a white cap and black corduroy shoes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Mu-style huajian is a convenient and simple form of exercise, suitable for both young and old, and much loved by local people; it has become a sport in which everyone in Tianmu Village participates.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huajian.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, its inheritors have compiled the "Jianpu" (Shuttlecock Manual) and the "Ranking Assessment Rules for the Eight Basic Skills of Huajian Kicking," providing practitioners with reference and standards for training. Mu-style huajian has been transmitted through family and master-apprentice methods and has now passed through five generations. Inheritors have actively taken on apprentices and taught the art by establishing shuttlecock teams, forming clubs and setting up youth training bases. At present, the reach of Mu-style huajian keeps expanding: practitioners in Tianmu Village and the surrounding area form a stable transmitting community, more and more young people have taken up the practice, with numbers exceeding ten thousand, and this ethnic-minority traditional sport is being transmitted in an orderly way and developing soundly.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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