When the teacher asked students if they wanted to show their swordplay skills(剑术), many of them raised their hands. This is common in Yingbinlu Primary School(YPS) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. It started martial arts (武术) training in 2011.
For PE lessons, students in this school can choose from martial arts, table tennis, rope jumping, football and so on. "Only 8 students chose martial arts in the beginning. Now about 200 out of 1,446 students take part in the training," the headmaster (校长) Chen Xue said.
Lou Yiling is 12 years old. She likes the course so much that she practises swordplay at home. Li Zhuoqian is now a 15-year-old middle school student. She graduated (毕业) from YPS three years ago. She used to be very timid and hid behind her mother when it was her turn to show up. After taking martial arts lessons, she became confident and won many prizes in competitions in Chengdu. She even showed martial arts in Japan with her classmates.
Now martial arts become popular not only in this school but also in other parts of our country. In Chenzhou, Hunan Province, more than 100,000 students at primary and middle schools are taking part in martial arts training.