Traditional Sports
The De’ang lives in high mountains at low latitudes, with relatively isolated access and a single production mode. Hunting and gathering were also important means of survival for the De’ang, as sole agriculture could not sustain the survival and reproduction of the tribe, and these gradually evolved into the traditional sports of today, such as martial arts,throwing stones and bamboo slingshot. Climbing plays an important role in daily life and has developed to the sport of dragon bamboo climbing. Despite their harsh living conditions, the De’ang has never given up the pursuit of recreation and leisure and have created traditional sports with ethnic characteristics.
(1) Martial Arts
The traditional martial arts of the De’ang consists of boxing techniques, broadsword techniques and stafftechniques.
According to a De’ang proverb, “Fist is a flower for a man”. The De’ang has two kind of boxing: “Performance Boxing” and “Practical Boxing”. The “Performance Boxing”is similar to the Red Boxing[33], with random movements, and is mostly performed for festivals or other celebratory occasions. It can be used to strengthen the body as well as for entertainment. The performance boxing is accompanied by the drum in the shape of an elephant’s foot and gongs. The “Practical Boxing” is used for fighting. Few people master its techniques, because it remains between the De’ang people. The main Practical Boxing are the Plum-Blossom Boxing and the Left Boxing.
Plum Blossom Boxing originated from the late Ming Dynasty. When the boxers practise,they should punch and kick on seven plum blossom stakes over half a meter high — hence the name, Plum Blossom Boxing. It is characterized by its close structure, outstanding fist attacking skills and diverse leg techniques, which makes it as an essential skill of martial arts. Besides, The De’ang people live in the tropical rainforest and their life is restricted by the thorny jungle. In wars, the flexible body techniques from Plum Blossom Boxing allow the De’ang to move steadily through the jungle.
The “Left Boxing” of De’ang differs greatly from other boxing in that it does not attack the opponent in a frontal position, but in a sideways position, taking no more than three steps. The Left Boxing is very tricky and fierce. Out of habit, most opponents tend to be negligent in defence and attack at the left side. The Left Boxing takes advantage of this feature to achieve victory. The De’ang martial art is appreciated by the martial arts community for its simple movements, variable routines, especially its close combat skills.
The broadsword techniques of De’ang can be divided into the wooden broadsword techniques, real broadsword techniques, single-broadsword techniques and doublebroadsword techniques. All of them are practiced by one person. Wooden broadsword techniques are designed for physical fitness, entertainment and martial arts exchange, so they are performed with consistent, bold movements. The real broadsword techniques are more simple, restrained and practical. The De’ang broadsword techniques are characterized by chopping and hacking. There is a saying among the De’ang: “The trick of using broadsword is hacking”. The broadsword techniques are fierce and fast, powerful and strong, and require that the broadsword be coordinated with motions.
Staff techniques are common sports in the De’ang folk. It has its roots in the early days,before iron weapons were made, and is still very much a part of De’ang life. According to the use of the staffs, they can be divided into eyebrow level staff, double-section staff and three-section staff. The performance starts with boxing and then the staff is taken over to begin the performance. The techniques of the eyebrow level staff is the combinations of striking the rival with throwing staff, hacking and poking, which has a wide-ranged attack and high speed. The techniques of the double-section staff is divided into three parts:attack, defence and counter-attack. The movements are varied, including chop, sweep,strike and pull. It can be used to attack the opponent’s upper section and midsection, and is particularly powerful against the lower section. In addition, it can also grab the enemy’s weapon. When attacking, it can be used not only for horizontally sweeping, poking and parrying, but also to strangle the opponent unexpectedly. The three-section staff, with its three sections connected, can be used for both attack and defence. The length is adjustable,which means the striking distance is flexible. The techniques of the three-section staff are various, including chop, sweep, wave, strike, poke and strangle.
(2) Throwing Stones Competition
Throwing stones competition is held in teams of two people in the De’ang. The host of the competition prepares stones of the same size and the contestants have to stand under the tree and throw stones at the tip of the tree, not only to throw them higher but also to successfully fly over the tip ofthe tree to win. Within a village, the contest is usually played individually, but sometimes it is also had the team competition, with the same number of players from each village, and whichever team has the highest number ofstones over the tip ofthe tree is the winner.
(3) Bamboo Slingshot
Bamboo slingshots, also known as clay slingshots, are the same shape as a normal bow.The size depends on the age and strength ofthe person using it. The adult slingshot is about 1.1 meters long. The body of the bow is diamond-shaped and made of bamboo, 2.5-3 cm wide in the middle and about 0.8-1 cm wide at the ends. The bowstrings are made ofslender slips ofbamboo or twine. The magazine, woven from slips of bamboo, is in the middle of the bowstring. The pellets are made of clay and have a diameter of 1.5-2 cm. To shoot, the archer holds the bow in one hand, takes the magazine in the other, then draws the bowstring back and aims it at the target. The hand holding the bow needs to pivot the bow outwards when releasing the string to shoot; otherwise the pellet will hit the bow. Many De’ang people always take their slingshot to shoot at stray sheep and cattle, birds in the corners of the fields and fruit on the trees. Bamboo slingshot competitions, mainly directional shooting, are rarely restricted by space, time or money. In the competition, the shooter takes 20-30 meters from the target and shoots simultaneously or in turn, whoever hits first wins. In 1989, it was included in the official list oftraditional sports for ethnic minorities in Yunnan.
(4) Dragon Bamboo Climbing
Dragon bamboo climbing is a popular traditional sport among the De’ang, testing the climbing skills, speed and stamina ofthe participants. The climbing bamboos are usually six to ten meters high Dendrocalamus giganteus (dragon bamboos), which are long and slippery and thick at the bottom but thin at the top. Because ofthis feature, climbers should climb up by encircling the bamboo at the bottom halfthen at the upper half; climbers should hold the bamboo not only with their hands but also their toes to climb up. During the competition,baskets containing bananas and other foodstuffs are hung from the top of the bamboo, and the winner is the one who climbs to the top and take down the basket in the shortest time.When the young man climbs the bamboo, the girls use wooden sticks to hit them, and the winner is considered “hero” and is the first choice ofthe girls for courtship, and can also be elected as youth leader.
(5) Whipping Top
Whipping top is also one ofthe favourite sports ofthe De’ang people. Every year, during the Chinese New Year, top-whipping competitions are held in the villages, in which both young and old participate. Depending on their age, they invite their opponents to compete,either as one-on-one or in teams of 3-5 people, or between villages. The De’ang play flat head tops (slightly different from the pointed ones played by the Dai), which are generally 10-12cm in diameter and 12cm high, and weigh 0.7-1.5kg. The best tops, made of teak wood, are cone-shaped and have an iron tip at the bottom ofthe cone. The top spins upright when people whip it by rope that wrapped around the top. The playing field must be at least 20 meters wide and divided into a spin zone and an attack zone, with the first level attack zone being 2 meters from the spin zone, the second level attack zone being 4-5 meters from the spin zone and so on. The greater the level, the further away from the spin zone, up to 20 meters. The method of play is as follows: Both players (individual or group) will play at the same time. The first one to “die” (top stopping is dead) is the loser. The winner is the attacker and the loser is the defender. The defender will play in the spin zone, the attacker will attack in the first level attack zone. Ifattacker makes the defender’ s top “dead” by their own top, they will be upgraded, if attacker’s top misses the defender’s top or “dies” first,the attacker will be judged to have failed, then the defender will be changed to the attacker,and so on. The result will depend on the levels both teams attacked; the one with the longest distance will win.
(6) The De’ang’s Ludo
In the De’ang’s Ludo, an indigenous board game of the De’ang, a rectangular board of 3 x 5 squares is placed in each ofthe four sides ofthe chess to form a ‘cross’. The dice are rolled in turn to determine the number of moves each player can take, with the first person to move piece through all the squares being the winner. The dice consist of five shells used as ornaments on women’s clothes. The shell has ajagged black line on one side and is white on the other. A bowl is placed in the middle ofthe board for the dice to be rolled. Five same colour shells can make five moves; four same colour shells can make two moves, and less than that can only move one square. In the move, ifone player’s piece crosses other’s piece,the latter will be kicked back to the start position and start again from scratch.