China News Agency, Beijing, August 16th: Is breakdance "resurrected" in China?

　　Author Xu Xueying

　　At the Outbreak 2022 hip-hop competition, Bgirl Liu Qingyi won China's first world breakdance top-level championship.

Chinese breakdancing is once again in the spotlight.

　　Breakdancing originated in the streets of the Bronx, New York in the 1970s. It is a kind of hip-hop and draws related elements from Brazilian war dance, gymnastics, and Chinese martial arts.

Fast-moving footsteps, handstand freezes, difficult spins... These are the typical movements that make breakdancing unique.

　　In the 1980s, "break dancing" was popular in China.

The American movie "Breakdance" has attracted fans of this dance in China.

At that time, Sun Honglei was still the "Dance King of the Northeast", and Ou Yang of the Face Band was still in the "Roman Team" breakdance team.

However, with the advent of new trends such as rock and roll, the "front wave" of hot dance gradually faded.

　　In 2020, breakdancing has returned to the public eye in China because it has been identified as an official event for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In 2013, the 7th "B-BOY IN SHANGHAI" International Breakdance Competition was held in Shanghai.

China News Agency issued a manatee photo

　　Tony Estangue, chairman of the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee, once said, "I hope to hold an Olympic Games that is unique and innovative, closer to young people, more urban, and more able to go off the field".

As a representative of street culture, breakdance is prevalent in the world, and its movements are both difficult and standardized, and have the conditions to be in line with the Olympics.

　　Breakdancing will appear in the Olympic Games, leading the fate of Chinese breakdancing.

The recognition of the international stage has made breakdance meet the mainstream Chinese culture in a vigorous manner again. It has been nearly 40 years since the last time.

　　Strictly speaking, the "break dance" popular in China in the 1980s is a hybrid of various hip-hop types. For example, "spacewalking" belongs to mechanical dance rather than break dance.

The Olympic break dance is a single dance called breaking, covering a large number of floor movements, and some people translate it as "floor dance".

　　Both competitive and artistic, leading the fashion trend, more and more people see the sparkle of breakdance.

　　For example, Chinese colleges and universities have gradually incorporated breakdance into the education system, and Beijing Sports University has started to set up experimental breakdance classes in 2020, recruiting students nationwide.

The entry of breakdance into colleges and universities will not only promote scientific training, sports rehabilitation and other related research on breakdance, but also provide an opportunity to increase the base of dancers.

Fans don’t have to hesitate between the binary opposition between interest and career, and take one and the other into consideration. Careers such as breakdancers, coaches, and college teachers can all become options for future development.

　　On July 21, the press conference for the publication and distribution of the "China Dance Sports Federation's Popular Hip-hop Sports Level Standards" was held in Beijing, which means that break dancers and other hip-hop enthusiasts have a clearer and more unified study guide.

In 2016, middle school students in Guang'an City, Sichuan Province break dance together in their spare time.

Photo by Liao Xiaobing issued by China News Agency

　　Street culture has entered the house, will it reduce its independent and cutting-edge style?

　　Since its birth, breakdancing has contained multicultural genes. It is the transcendence of the status quo and the eclecticism that has made it popular today.

It is said that the classic technique "windmill" (windmill), that is, absorbs the action of lying on the ground, sweeping the legs and turning over in Shaolin Kungfu.

And the core of breakdance is the energy within life, extending from the east coast of North America to the whole world, free, enthusiastic and unrestrained emotions, regardless of race, span time and space.

Breakdance, as a way of expressing emotion, is naturally often "dance" and often "new".

In 2021, the 14th National Games Breakdance Women's Championship will be held in Nanjing. The picture shows Henan player Liu Qingyi in the competition.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo

　　Today, breakdancing has returned to the mainstream Chinese vision in a new way, setting off a retro trend.

Even if the meaning is different, the name "breakdance" still brings people back to the 1980s, showing the collective memory of a generation full of rhythm, as well as the once flamboyant and young self.

With the help of the international stage of the Olympic Games, the exchange of Eastern and Western cultures will surely yield new results as dancers move around.

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