May 24th, Sports Meet

Sports Meet Day.

On May 24th the faculty of the School of Western Studies paraded into the stadium with some of our students and representatives of other schools and departments.

Heilongjiang University celebrates a Sports Day (track meet) in mid-May every year, and representatives from every school and department participate. Classes are cancelled for two days while students attend the event. Many students who are not interested use the opportunity to sneak off campus and take a four-day weekend holiday back home with their families, although they are supposed to remain on campus. It seems all the competition is between individuals or teams representing schools within the university. The whole event seems like a celebration of the university community and healthy athleticism and personal fitness.

Squads of students practiced and drilled to shout slogans or cheers as they passed the reviewing stand. They also practice marching so that they would look good as they paraded around the packed stadium. Several departments and colleges prepared interesting costumes or regalia to wear. The last group to parade around the track were the housing staff, the guards and custodians who keep the students’ living quarters clean and safe, and I was pleased to hear the students give an especially lound and heartfelt cheer as these staff marched around the track.

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	This is a photograph of a lunch I had on May 23rd at Xiuli’s home with Wenpei and Chuanmin. As they knew it was a holy day for me, they treated me to this special home-cooked lunch meal. I was very impressed by the foods.	The sporting event on the 24th started very early. We lined up shortly after 7:00 a.m. outside the stadium, waiting for our turn to parade into the stadium and march around the track. The school furnished me with the outfit I’m wearing.	The whole parading and marching around the track activities were fairly relaxed and fun. There was a group of soldiers and a military band as well. They marched well, and shouted loudly.


	On the reviewing stand were the deans and leaders and officials of the various departments and schools at Heilongjiang University.	Wenpei led our college (school), followed by some honored students, followed by male and female faculty.	We all wore black pants, the women faculty had pink shirts while we men wore white shirts.


	There is Wenpei.	Here are some students and the faculty from the College of Western Studies.	Among the faculty are several exchange scholars who have been in Springfield in past years.


	After marching around the track, we assembled in the infield and stood in a line.	Some of the international students and Chinese ethnic minorities from Xinjiang wore national costumes or regalia.	After standing in the infield for a while, the School of Western Studies faculty headed out of the stadium, but a few of us came back to watch the continuing opening ceremonies.


	Here we are: myself, Xiuli, and Zhihong. Chuanmin was there as well (see the other photograph where she sits in the middle).	We watched the guests from Xinjiang come out from the infield, and then we realized they were coming to the place where we were sitting, so we gladly moved to make room for them.	Some of the Xinjiang guests.


	The people of Xinjiang represent a great number of Chinese ethnic minorities and the majority Han nationality.	The Xinjiang costumes were striking.	Some of the Xinjiang visitors seemed just as interested in me as I was in them.


	Students of the School of Western Studies were watching the sports meet.	I sat near some yellow balloons to watch the events.	Wenpei’s son Benjamin, on summer break from Hong Kong Polytechnic, was there to photograph the ceremonies.


	We saw several heats of the women’s 100 meter dash.	Our neighbors from Xinjiang had wisely brought parasols on the sunny day.	I find the faces of the men and women from Xinjiang to be most interesting and attractive.

My friends asked me if we had anything like the sports meet back in America. Well, we have college football games, which combine a great deal of spectacle with expressions of school spirit and enthusism, but college sporting events such as home games in football are shorter, focused on particular teams competing against teams from other schools, and the games do not involve the whole school. On the other hand, home games in college football at big state universities such as the University of Illinois bring in hundreds or thousands of graduates of our schools, and part of the ritual is the long and festive pregame activities held outside the stadium, where people prepare food and play games. Americans also have track meets (my sister Jennell and I both participated in track as high school students, and my sister continued as a track athlete in college). But track meets, and even state high school championship track meets, do not have much spectacle in them. Students from all over the state converge at some stadium belonging to a major state university or perhaps a large high school in the capital city of the state, and the best athletes compete against each other. Each school and athlete brings along a significant number of teammates and family and supporters from their school, but there are usually no marches or parades at the start of the meet.

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