Albeit an economic slowdown and a series of food scares, there is also non-stop festivities in China. This time, it’s a sports competition for farmers, i.e. 农运会/nong2 yun4 hui4. Not only are all the contestants farmers, the events are also inspired by agricultural life such as the planting race you see in the clip. Other events include shot put (instead of a piece of metal athletes throw a bunch of crop) and dragon dance, which originated in the countryside.
I don’t know how applicable those events are to farming. But the contestants all seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, maybe to an even greater extent than Olympians. Also a dose of optimism in a dire time.
Hi, I am Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod.com. I bring you a slice of the Chinese language and culture in the daily podcast. But there is so much more than what a podcast has time for, so jennyzhu.com is a space of observation and reflection on the big, small and everything in between about China.
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October 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am
the farmer’s olympic games reminded me of ESPN2’s lumberjack competition. now i think perhaps there should be a chinesepod olympic games!