Comments on: the best of parkour in china ::

By: Plain Lazy

Plain Lazy — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:24:11 +0000

Amazing! Some forms of freedom will never be taken away! I just hope it doesn’t go from being called free runnning to governement running…..

By: China’s Creative Community and Youth Culture: Interview with Adam Schokora

China’s Creative Community and Youth Culture: Interview with Adam Schokora — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:29:21 +0000

[...] In addition to Neocha and 56minus1, check out Douban.com, Chinavisual.com, and Arting365.com for some of the bigger sites. Among smaller sites, there are just too many to list, but for every subculture and creative endeavor in China, there are usually several dedicated websites or BBS discussion forums. Also, you can just pick a topic you want to learn more about and search on Baidu or any of the big user generated content portals (Youku, Tudou, Tianya, etc.). I recently did this – I wanted to learn more about Parkour in China and was blown away by what I came up with; I did a post on 56minus1. (LINK) [...]

By: Adam J. Schokora

Adam J. Schokora — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:24:42 +0000

@ KShap, thanks again for your response. Great information.

// AjS

By: KShap

KShap — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:49:00 +0000

@Adam re: Fyrel’s post – they are very community oriented, though. That’s a big misconception you have that everyone has a “price” especially in China. That could be true about the general population, but I gladly found that these guys are different. They understand the philosophies much more than you may think. It does not mean that they aren’t willing to do shows, performances, and whatnot… who wouldn’t, but they do know the difference between doing shows, and aiding in negative exposure and being taken advantage of. The difference is sending the right message vs. a distorted or negative message. They understand that difference.

re: Barry He’s post – As I said, there isn’t really an online presence. They sparsely use the http://www.paoku.com.cn website. You can make a post there if you wish, otherwise you can join their QQ group: 31544905. There are limited English speakers, however.

By: Adam J. Schokora

Adam J. Schokora — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:57:13 +0000

@ KShap, thanks for you response. Great information. I will drop you a line via your blog.

@ Barry He, I haven’t been able to find a specific online community for traceurs in Shanghai, but if I do I’ll be sure to make a note of it here.

@ Fyrel, thanks for your response. They do seem to be a very pure community, but I am always suspicious of that. Everyone has a “price,” especially in China. :-)

// AjS

By: KShap

KShap — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:46:19 +0000

Good post, but there is a lot more to say about these communities… they are all different in their own light. The Chinese Parkour scene is actually quite developed. The most dominant communities being the Wuhan, Beijing, and Nanjing, in that order.

There is in fact a large Shanghai group. They are quite active and involved in numerous things as well. They don’t make many videos, but there are some out there if you search hard enough. They do have a lack of online presence simply because they don’t use forums, websites, etc to connect. They use QQ or personal contact. If you are interested in the Shanghai group, get a hold of me and I’ll push you in the right direction.

I’ve been seeing it lately that the Chinese groups have been slowly moving into English, but it’s still a far way from that. For any non-Mandarin speakers out there, it is best to find local foreigners within the groups to help you find them.

By: Gerald Schmidt

Gerald Schmidt — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:40:38 +0000

Nice to get some more input on this; I had found that there is parkour in China before, but had not really looked for sites yet (my Chinese still being limited). Maybe I should continue my research into parkour in China, after all… might be a project for the summer. Hmmm…

By: The New Dominion » Some Xinjiang News Updates

The New Dominion » Some Xinjiang News Updates — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:13:56 +0000

[...] Schokora at 56minus1 shares some observations on parkour in China, and includes one video of parkour enthusiasts practicing their art in Xinjiang. Parkour, also [...]

By: Fyrel

Fyrel — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:00:34 +0000

Awesome post; I’ll make sure to check those sites before my next trip to Shanghai. Should be interesting training with Chinese traceurs (although I’ll have to brush up on my Chinese a little).

About the marketing thing: You’ll find most traceurs (and probably freerunners?) are highly opposed to branding and commercialization of parkour. We want to keep it a free and pure activity without any sort of competitions or merchandising. Of course, you’ll find companies like Urban Freeflow who advertise themselves as the “official parkour clothing” brand or whatnot, but they’re very often looked down upon by traceurs (and in this case, even denounced officially by David Belle, the founder).

By: barry he

barry he — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:17:09 +0000

sorry, my chinese isnt very good, and im new to this site, is it possible you could give me a link to a shanghainese parkour community website?

that would be very helpfull, thanks!

By: barry he

barry he — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:14:54 +0000

a parkour practitioner is called a “traceur”, most practitioners do both freerunning and parkour and there are very few in a minority whom train just in parkour or just in freerunning.

By: Parkour hits the streets of China | WiFi Shanghai

Parkour hits the streets of China | WiFi Shanghai — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:31:19 +0000

[...] you know China had a burgeoning parkour scene? We didn’t either until 56minus1 discovered a bunch of online Chinese parkour groups, communities and [...]

By: Adam J. Schokora

Adam J. Schokora — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:28:35 +0000

@ Barry, thanks for your response.

Hope this post helps you find your Shanghai counterparts. Link around to some of the community forums I mention above, you’ll find them. Seems the free-runners hang out in the same places online as the Parkour’ers.

// AjS

By: Adam J. Schokora

Adam J. Schokora — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:25:31 +0000

@ Jason, not active. But when I was younger we did a lot of similar stuff…difference then was that we had no idea it was French. ;-)

// AjS

By: Jason ZJ

Jason ZJ — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:28:42 +0000

Cool videos

Adam, do you play parkour?