Chinese Archery Lecture/Demonstation in Hong Kong

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:21 am

14 October 2010, 18:00. See

jkekoni · Post by **jkekoni** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:52 am

I heard that traditional archery was alive until cultural revolution, when the remining few bowyers were beaten often to death and sometimes even eaten by red guards, so it is not much "long lost tradition", but rather "recently lost long tradition".

...Presuming you mean Qing bows (as the picture) and not Ming bows etc...

... too bad flight to hong kong are quite expensive and time consiming ...

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 1:29 am

Your information is not correct. By the Cultural Revolution, only one or two collectives were making traditional bows (among other sporting equipment) and their output was by then going almost entirely to Outer Mongolia. Bowyers were classed as 'workers' from a labour class background and they were not mistreated by the red guards. Indeed, Yang Wentong was asked to make a bow for Chairman Mao. When Yang made the bow but refused any payment from the Chairman, he and his collective received a large gift of sweet cakes to share around.

However, they were not permitted to continue to export bows for Mongolia, partly due to the Sino-Soviet disputes of the 1960s. They had no other market at that time and were forced to change to general carpentry.