LANZHOU, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Grasping a sword, 23-year-old college student Li Mengnan practices Kungfu.
Li is a member of Professional Martial Arts Team of Lanzhou University. Wearing a red uniform, he is also a world champion sword master.
Since 2001, Lanzhou's Professional Martial Arts Team has trained over 90 professional athletes, including Li. Across various martial arts competitions in China and abroad, Lanzhou has produced 10 world champions, 4 intercontinental champions and has reaped 455 medals.
In recent years, traditional martial arts like Tai Chi, Sword and Changquan have been taken abroad by college students like Li, helping to promote cultural exchanges for Chinese and foreign countries and regions.
In 2017, Li won two gold medals in Changquan of Taolu and Sword and Stick at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei.
Four years ago, after enrolling at college, Li was trained by Kan Wencong, herself a gold medalist in women's martial arts at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games.
Kan indicates that Li's continuous progress in martial arts depends on his performances in competitions at home and abroad. "Through a literature review and video analysis, we make statistical analysis on different competitions in recent years. And that helps a lot." Kan said.
According to Kan, increasing numbers of retired Chinese martial arts practicioners are going abroad and training overseas martial arts lovers. "Elite athletes all over the world, from places like Japan, Malaysia, United States, Singapore, they all set goals to get gold medals. And it's good to see this kind of cultural exchange among different countries (and regions)," Kan said.
Martial arts also helps to build bridges between China and foreign countries and regions. Miao Mingyu, from Uzbekistan who studies at Lanzhou University, loves Tai Chi and martial arts. "Martial arts can give us inner peace and it's a good way to relax after studying," she said.
Professor Li Shaocheng, from the Department of Physical Education at Lanzhou University, believes that China will hold more and more cultural exchange events on martial arts in the near future through the country's overseas Confucius Institutes.
