Chapter 2 The Emergence and Development of Minorit...
Yunnan is the province with the largest variety of ethnic groups in China, 25 minority groups have been living on this wonderful land for ages. The early ethnic sports emerged from people’s daily work and life such as long struggle against nature, human combat,religious rituals and recreation. And these early ethnic sports played a positive role in the reproduction and progress of the ethnic groups. Due to the political, economic and cultural constraints, the development of minority sports in Yunnan was extremely uneven before 1949. After the founding of the P.R.C., under the guidance of CCP’s ethnic policy of“equality, unity, progress and prosperity”, Yunnan minority sports gradually transformed from the closed and primitive into the open and regulated phase, and entered a new era of steady development. The traditional sports ofYunnan’s ethnic minorities are a shiningjewel in the crown ofEastern culture.