With Kungfu Panda sweeping across the world, Wushu, a traditional Chinese martial art is attracting more and more fans both home and abroad. Although it failed in its bid to be included as a 2008 Olympic event, it still appeared at the Beijing Olympic stadium as a special event.
The event “Beijing 2008 Wushu Competition” was co-organized by The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), International Wushu Federation (IWF) and Chinese Wushu Association, attracting 128 athletes from 43 countries to compete for 15 gold medals.
As a sports event, Wushu is developed well in Asia; it has been listed as the event of Asian Games since 1990, but it still has a long way to go for its application as an Olympic event.
With a history of several thousand years in China, Wushu is an important part of Chinese culture. It is enriched by various styles and loved by people from different cultural backgrounds since it as a competitive and healthy sport that plays an important role in nurturing the moral character of youth.