Fire Jumping in Xiamen China

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

Otte letter from China, written on Kulangsu in October 1901, published in Hope College Anchor, December 1901.

“I have long thought of writing you some description of a very peculiar sport I witnessed not long ago. Apropos of the many college games entered into nowadays is one Chinese sport I do not think Hope College venturesome ones would care to try , nor the most liberal among the faculty to encourage. I refer to jumping over the fire.

On the fifteenth day of the first Chinese month (generally about the middle of February) the “Feast of Lanterns” is observed. On the evening of this day you may see all over the city small bonfires, bright, cracking, and evidently pretty hot. There are little groups of men and boys standing near. Our party went a little to one side to watch with interest. After their prolonged staring at us, one after another gained courage, and then made a dash, a spring through the air, and safely landed on the other side, would come down a living figure, wiping the perspiration and dust from off his heated face. This is kept up for several hours, the waning fire being constantly replenished. Strange to say, but few accidents occur, and long after midnight you may hear the sounds of revelry

The more dignified among the Chinese worthies indulge in other sports, such as archery. How old-fashioned that sounds to us, and yet it is still practiced, and prize examinations are held every year at the famous annual examination periods.

There is, however, much for the Chinese to learn in the way of genuine beneficial bodily exercise, and his phlegmatic temperament might be improved were he stimulated more by some of our Western ideas…

But the longer I live in China the more I am impressed with the fact that the Chinese are not only a peculiar, but an interesting people, if viewed from the right standpoint. And I believe I am about as interested in their great antiquity as in anything else.






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