DENGFENG (China), Jan 17: Not far from Shaolin monastery, the cradle of Chinese martial arts, a wall poster exhorts people to “cherish the culture of kung fu, strengthen the Olympic spirit.”

The slogan stresses the importance of wushu to the national heritage but fails to mention that the sport, better known outside China as kung fu, will not feature on the programme of the August Beijing Olympics.

Wushu was left out in the cold despite a China-led campaign that won the backing of the Olympic Council of Asia, the region’s top sports body, that included wushu in its own version of the Olympics, the Asian Games, in 1990.

The Japanese may have managed to have judo enshrined as an Olympic sport and the South Koreans also succeeded in getting taekwondo, Korea’s own brand of martial art, adopted.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has turned a deaf ear to the more recent appeals on behalf of wushu.

China’s wushu association is making the best of the situation by getting approval from the government to stage a tournament in Beijing that will take place during the Olympics.

The IOC have insisted that the event has nothing to do with the Games but many Chinese think otherwise.

Given the current mood within the IOC, wushu is unlikely to be elevated as an Olympic sport in a hurry.

IOC chief Jacques Rogge is opposed to any expansion of the Olympics with the addition of new sports and any further rise in the already huge cost of staging the four-yearly event.

Recently actor Jet Li, China’s most famous wushu master who helped promote the sport in several Hollywood films, told his compatriots that they may have a long wait before their traditional combat sport is enshrined.

“I think we need to work for a few more generations to get wushu made into an Olympic sport,” he said in the Chinese capital late last year.

“But we will not give up and we will achieve this Olympic dream one day.”— AFP