Letter: Aoril 2004

Asian Traditional Archery Research Network (ATARN)
Photographs © Romain Berard, Beijing, 2004.

A1, Cloudridge,
30, Plunkett’s Road,
The Peak, Hong Kong.

Fax: (+852) 2808-2887
email: srselby@atarn.org
April 2004

Letter of January 2004

Letter of March 2004

Dear All,

Bear with me for this month, because I haven't got a whole load of pretty pictures of hardware to show you this time around, and I do know how much you like them.

As you know, ATARN's mission is to spread the word about Asian traditional archery around the world ― and especially to do what we can to renew interest in the traditional art of archery in those places in Asia where once it was strong but now it has become weak. As I myself am located in China, it's natural that the focus of my activity has been with Chinese people. In Hong Kong, my students from previous Chinese archery courses have started to organize themselves to find a place to practice and promote Chinese archery. In the Mainland of China, Mr Xu Kaicai has offered his unstinting support and excellent network of contacts to help ATARN to find ways of promoting traditional archery among the Han nationality and other minority peoples.

This is how ATARN's programme of work for 2003-2006 looks at present:

ATARN Han and National Minority Traditional Archery
Development Programme.

2003

Hong Kong

23 January 2003	Donation of funds by Rotary Club of Hong Kong North
February – May 2003	First Beginner’s Training Completed	Eight students completed training
May – July 2003	Second Beginner’s Training Completed	Six students completed training
May – July 2003	First Intermediate Training Completed	Six students completed training
October 24 – 26 2003	Asian Traditional Archery Festival 2003	7,000 HK people attended. Participants from China (Tibet), Mongolia, Korea, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Nepal, Australia.
November 2003 —Jan 2004	Third Beginner’s Training Completed	Ten students completed training
November 2003 —Jan 2004	Second Intermediate Training Completed	Eight students completed training

China

October 2003	Twenty bows sent to Beijing	Ten bows subsequently sent to Qinghai
7—9 November 2003	First Beginner’s Training Completed	Eight students completed training

2004

Hong Kong

June 2004

Beginners’ Weekend Training

Modelled on Tsinghua Training in Beijing.

China

25 March 2004	Ten bows sent to Chapchal	To be used for training Xibe Minority
26—28 March 2004	Second Beginners’ Training Completed (Tsinghua University)	Twenty students completed training
Late June 2003	First beginners’ training for Xibe Minority	Chapchal County, Ili, Xinjiang
August 29—31	50^th Anniversary of Founding of Chapchal Xibe Autonomous Banner	Traditional Archery display by Xibe Minority

2005/2006

China

Hulunba’er County, Inner Mongolia wishes to obtain bows and training during 2005 with a view to including traditional archery in the all-Inner Mongolia Naadam to be held in the summer of 2006. (At present, the Naadams of Inner Mongolia are limited to archery with western bows.)

At the moment, I am doing this on my own, or with the help of previous students and Mr Xu Kaicai. I hope all ATARN Members will feel welcome to offer their services to join in these programmes. For those of you from outside China, it is a wonderful way to get to see the 'real' China and meet with people who share your passion for archery. That you may not speak Chinese is no problem if you're with those who share you interests!

With generous help from Romain Berard and former student, Lydie, I held a full time beginners' archery course for students from Tsinghua University, Beijing from 25-27 March. You can see the lesson plan here.

Here are some photographs taken by Romain Berard:

Introducing the strength bow	Learning to string a Chinese bow safely
Learning to nock an arrow	Archery relay race - hopping on one leg
Learning to come to full draw	After twelve hours' study: shooting with style

I shall be offering this course at the International Horse Archery Festival in Fort Dodge, Iowa, USA from September 9-12, 2004.

My intermediate level students in Hong Kong have asked me what is involved in studying 'advanced' Chinese archery. I have told them that I have taught them what I can at ground-level and for anything beyond that they must get up on horseback. However, I have never offered any horseback archery training. I have strongly recommended that they make the pilgrimage to Fort Dodge, or go to study with Kassai in Hungary.

However, the reality is that people are busy and many can't afford the time or money to spend nearly a week in the USA or Europe. So I am hoping to join together with a horse riding club in Hong Kong to offer a weekend residential course to give students a taste of what horseback archery is like. Working with a world-class show-jumping instructor (who regularly has novice riders cantering in their first lesson!), I am hoping to offer the following course:

Chinese Horseback Archery Training Syllabus

Day 0

Dinner meeting: orientation and introduction to syllabus.

Day 1

0900—0930	Qigong	Revision of qigong method learned at intermediate course.
0930—1015	Groundwork	Revision of archery method learned at intermediate course.
1015—1030	Coffee break
1030—1100	Tack-up	Instruction on how to put bridle, saddle and leg-pads on a horse.
1100—1200 Individual horses	Riding	Introduction to basic riding with attention to special issues related to horseback archery. Balanced standing in the stirrups at the walk.
1200—1230	Tack-down.	Students to tack down and wash off horses on their own.
1230—1345	Lunch break	Cold lunch / soup on-site
1345—1400	Qigong
1400—1430	Tack-up	Students tack up by themselves.
1430—1530 Archery horse #1	Group I: lungeing lesson. Standing balanced at the trot. Forward seat. Rhythm with sword and juggling balls	Group II: individual archery groundwork practice.
1530—1630 Archery horse #2	Group I: individual archery groundwork practice.	Group II: lungeing lesson. Standing balanced at the trot. Forward seat. Rhythm with sword and juggling balls
1630—1700	Tack-down.	Students to tack down and wash off horses on their own.
1700—1730	Discussion
1830—2030	Barbecue dinner

Day 2

0800—0900	Breakfast
0900—0930	Qigong	Revision of qigong method learned at elementary and intermediate course.
0930—1000	Tack-up	Students tack up by themselves.
1000—1100 Archery horse #1	Group I: lungeing lesson. Canter. Canter without reins.	Group II: individual archery groundwork practice.
1100—1200 Archery horse #2	Group I: individual archery groundwork practice.	Group II: lungeing lesson. Canter. Canter without reins.
1200—1230	Tack-down.	Students to tack down and wash off horses on their own.
1230—1345	Lunch break	Cold lunch / soup on-site
1345—1400	Qigong
1400—1430	Tack-up	Students tack up by themselves.
1430—1530 Archery horse #1	Group I: lungeing lesson. Nocking and target shooting at the canter.	Group II: individual archery groundwork practice.
1530—1630 Archery horse #2	Group I: individual archery groundwork practice.	Group II: lungeing lesson. Nocking and target shooting at the canter.
1630—1700	Tack-down.	Students to tack down and wash off horses on their own.
1700—1730	Discussion

1730 END

We don't have a timing for this course yet; but I hope to run it here in Hong Kong before the middle of summer. Students will be restricted to a maximum of eight who have completed the intermediate level Chinese archery training and have had at least four hours in the saddle in the past twelve months. It is expected to cost about HK$3,000 (US$385) to join.

In the 2004 work programme for China shown at the beginning of this letter, I mentioned the 50^th Anniversary of Founding of Chapchal Xibe Autonomous Banner. This is an event that ATARN Members could join in if they wished. I hope to organize a group to attend from Hong Kong, and we welcome Members from any part of the world to join us. The whole trip would require about one week around 29-31 August. Let me know if you would be interested. (I should have some initial cost information in about one month's time.)

(Signed)

(Stephen Selby)