China News Service, Nanning, February 23 (Huang Lingyan) In the New Year of the Horse, the flavor and vitality of Zhuang Township are intertwined. The ninth Guangxi Ten Thousand Villages Basketball Game of the "Sports Lottery Cup" kicked off with the theme of "National Fitness New Year's Eve". With the distinctive characteristics of "grassroots competition and national participation", it deeply integrated the folk customs from all over Guangxi and became the most popular cultural and sports event in Bagui New Year. During the Spring Festival, more than 8,000 basketball games were organized and held across Guangxi, attracting more than 10 million spectators.
The picture shows the scene of the Guangxi Wancun basketball game. Photo courtesy of Guangxi Sports Bureau
At the Putang town-level competition in Xingye County, Yulin City, the "characteristic entrance ceremony" of the 16 rural teams in the town attracted attention. The Putang village team carried rice noodles, sugar rings, and white glutinous rice noodles, and the Shiqi village team displayed "Xian Jin Feng" "Ice Lychee" lychee samples, the Longqi Village representative team brought organic camellia oil and flower nectar, and the Anguo Village representative team appeared in "new clothes" wearing golden sugar oranges, and the competition venue was transformed into a "rural cultural tourism agricultural product promotion meeting."
Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Hechi City has integrated the Maonan Dragon Festival folk custom performance into the competition schedule, and the stadium and inside are filled with rich ethnic customs. The down-to-earth prizes of the Chaodong Town-level competition in Fuchuan Yao Autonomous County, Hezhou City became the highlight of the event: the champion received a 300-jin fat pig, the runner-up received a 200-jin pig, the third runner-up received a sheep, and the top four received chickens and ducks. All participating team members received encouraging red envelopes. These "farm-flavored" rewards make the villagers feel more cordial. The Xinqing Village competition in Maping Town, Xiangzhou County, Laibin City attracted 8 powerful teams from Guangdong, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places to gather. 16 duels competed for the championship prize of 51,888 yuan, making the influence of Guangxi's "Village BA" span the province.
The picture shows the Guangxi Wancun basketball game attracting a large number of spectators. Photo courtesy of Guangxi Sports Bureau
During the event, various localities used the event as a medium to deeply implement the integration concept of "sports + culture and tourism + agriculture + commerce", creating an integrated development effect of "one game, multiple benefits". According to incomplete statistics, during the Spring Festival, the 9th Guangxi Ten Thousand Villages Basketball Tournament spurred consumption of more than 200 million yuan, truly realizing a virtuous cycle of "hot events, lively market, and happy people".
Liang Jianbo, deputy director of the Sports Bureau of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that from competition on the field to consumption activation, from nostalgia to cultural empowerment, the Guangxi Wancun Basketball Game takes the Spring Festival as an opportunity to spread the national fitness trend throughout the Bagui countryside and become a vivid practice for Guangxi to promote the deep integration of national fitness and rural revitalization. “There are stadiums everywhere and competitions in every village” in various places, which not only enriches the cultural life of villagers during the Spring Festival, but also demonstrates the positive, united and enterprising spirit of farmers in the new era.
At present, the township-level competitions in the region are still advancing in an orderly manner, and the municipal competitions and finals will begin in March. The Sports Bureau of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will continue to deepen the "sports +" integrated development model, build the event into a cultural card for rural revitalization and a national fitness brand event, and promote the "heat" of mass sports in the region. (over)
