The 17th Huzhou City Traditionalial Arts Competition and the Huzhou City Martial Arts Academy School Martial Arts (routine) competition were successfully held at the Changxing Sports Center from November 8th 9th, 2025. CHATIR SOUKAINA (Chinese name: Li Changge) and AIT BAHMED FOUZIAChinese name: Jiya), two international students from Morocco at Huzhou University, won gold medals with their superb stick skills, becoming a striking international feature of the event
As international contestants participating in the Huzhou City Traditional Martial Arts Competition for the first time in seventeen years, Li Changge and Jiya brought two entries respectively:African Stick Skills and Traditional Stick Skills. On the field, their movements were powerful and rhythmic, skillfully integrating the agility of African traditional stick skills with stability of Chinese martial arts. They not only demonstrated a profound understanding of martial arts skills but also conveyed their love and respect for traditional Chinese culture. Their neat moves and focused won rounds of applause from the audience, and in the end, both of them won the gold medal in their respective groups with high scores.
The two international students came into contact martial arts in their physical education classes, and since then, martial arts has become an important window for them to explore China. Chinese martial arts are not only a set of skills also contain philosophical wisdom of 'combining hardness and softness', Li Changge shared after the game. They trained hard in their spare time, honed every move under careful guidance of their master, and gradually understood the cultural connotation of martial arts from standardized moves to spiritual core. This competition is not only a test of their training results but also vivid practice of Sino-African cultural exchange, which adds an international color to Wuxi martial arts.
The awards of the two international students are not only the harvest personal efforts but also a microcosm of the open and inclusive cultural atmosphere of Huzhou. Huzhou University will also take this competition as an opportunity to further deep the exchange of international culture, to enable more international students to gain cultural growth in their study abroad, and to inject youthful strength into the mutual learning of Chinese and foreign civilizations
