By sportswriter Zheng Xin, Lin Shuting
NANNING, China, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese-style background music (BGM), graceful, grand, and rich in Chinese cultural elements, has gained popularity at China's first Student (Youth) Games.
During the shadow-boxing competitions in the martial arts event Tuesday, Wang Lei, the athlete dressed in a light cyan costume embroidered with large lotus flowers, performed shadow-boxing to the BGM of "Misty Rain in the Regions South of the Yangtze River". The junior martial arts player's flexible movements and the slow Chinese-style BGM combined to showcase the poetic sense of southern China.
Numerous pieces of BGM, such as "Jiu'er", "Bidding Farewell with a Willow Twig", "The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting" from renowned Chinese cultural TV programs and plays, provided visual and auditory enjoyment to nearly 1,000 spectators in Guangxi Gymnasium.
Chinese-style BGM has also become favored among participants in competitions of stick, spear, and changquan-boxing, which require a more lively rhythm. Hu Jiang, the 16-year-old gold medalist of the spear competition, told Xinhua that the BGM inspired him, helping him perform in peak condition.
"It is the second program we made for him and blended more beats into the Chinese-style music," said Li Baojia, Hu's coach.
In the calisthenics and cheerleading events in aerobics, which originated in European and North American countries, Chinese-style BGM was a constant feature in the competitions.
Eighteen male cheerleaders donning striking ethnic costumes stood at the center of the field at Guangxi Normal University, located in Guilin, and received a loud ovation from the audience. The program brought by the Yunnan cheerleading dance team, which combined five music styles of minority nationalities, greatly impressed both the judges and the audience.
"We only started to arrange this program in July this year," said Li Dong, the coach of Yunnan.
"At that time, we thought there were many ethnic members in our team, so we added their instruments from each ethnic group and mixed them into the BGM," Li added.
Chinese-style BGM, alongside jazz and hip-hop, played a leading role in the cheerleading dance competitions. During the calisthenics event, traditional Chinese instruments like the bamboo flute and suona horn were also integrated into the lively music.
According to Wang Ke, a former calisthenics world champion, the prevailing thought was that Chinese-style BGM was better suited for martial arts, rhythmic gymnastics, and figure skating than calisthenics, which requires a smooth rhythm and heavy beats, about five or six years ago.
"However, three out of five programs we brought have Chinese cultural elements," said Wang, who also coached Tianjin at the Student (Youth) Games this time.
Ou Jun, the arbitrator in calisthenics and cheerleading dance events, as well as an international referee for aerobics, told Xinhua that blending Chinese-style music into aerobics was challenging. "We tried 20 years ago but failed," he said.
"Accompanied by Chinese-style music itself becoming more diverse, a growing number of programs are incorporating it into the BGM and being well-received by judges and audiences," Ou noted.
BGM is a crucial complement in aerobics events, Ou added, explaining that the increasing number of innovative BGM pieces in competitions not only indicates a rising recognition of Chinese-style music among athletes, referees, and audiences but also shows that creators are gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese-style music.
"As long as athletes can synchronize their movements with the rhythm, and the melody is pleasing to the ears of referees and spectators, any style of BGM will provide them with an immersive experience during the games," Ou concluded.
The Games, opening on Sunday, brought together over 20,000 students and youths in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. ■
