Recollect

Recently, this class talked a lot about what happened 35 years ago in China. I thought back and many old things came before my eyes as if they had happened yesterday.

The Chinese Culture revolution had almost come to the end, in about 1972 to 1974. The Chinese people could not watch anything except only 6 specimens of Chinese opera. At that time, sports were just returning to public view. No one had practiced or performed in a tournament for more than six years. Sports became a hot amusement.

The gymnastics, Wushu (martial arts) and table tennis teams always performed together. We went to many cities in JiLin province. We performed for foreign country leaders and princes who visited Chung Chun.

I remembered once, we went to Yan Ji Autonomy to perform. One night, at a not too big a stadium., we had performed for just about 15 minutes when someone stopped us. Latter, we learned that too many people wanted to see our show. There wasn’t enough space for everyone. All the tickets had been sold, but more people wanted to watch. They crowded through a door, and it was very dangerous, so we changed to the next day.

Thus it can be seen that, at that time, the Chinese people had a thirst for more recreation.