Archery
2 min readArchery is one of the favorite sporting activities among Xibe people Xinjiang Xibe autonomous County of Qapqal where people of Xibe ethnic grouplive is known as the “hometown of archery”. There are an archery team and an archery sports school.
In August 2012, the second national traditional archery competition was held in Xibe autonomous County of Qapqal. 21 delegations from provinces and municipalities such as Beijing, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang, a variety of prefectures and cities from Xinjiang and Xibe Autonomous County of Qapqal took part in the competition. Archery of Xibe people has a long history of over 1,000 years so Xibe boys are proud ofbeing an excellent archer. Xibe people had to practice bow drawing and arrow shooting when they are very young who attach importance to building up the muscles of their arms. In the past, Xibe people used to hold an archery examination and competition on april 16 of China’s lunar calendar every year According to the traditional customs of Xibe people, if a boy is born his male parent will make him a small-sized bow and arrow which is hung in the doorway by a red silk rope and hope that the baby grows up into an excellentrider and skilled archer.
Boys and girls of Xibe ethnic group meet with eachother through arrow shooting in their social intercourse a boy courts a girl and wins her heart by his exquisite archery skills. If a girl takes a fancy to a boy she may take initiative to go shooting with him so as to communicate feelings for each other and finally get married. In the area where Xibe people dwe there is archery ground everywhere in the villages and every family has bows and arrows with a great many of skilled archers, because being an excellent archer will be regarded as an supreme honor for a person of Xibe ethnic group and he will be highly respected by local people. For years, Xibe Autonomous County of Qapqal has raised a number of excellent Xibe archers for the country. In many competitions both at home and abroad, famous Xibe archers such as Ru Guang, Guo Meizhen, Ba Yongshan and Xue Haifeng once won the hampionship for many times and win numerous honors for china and for their hometown.
