Ethnic games bringing people together in Henan

For Sun Kai, the pursuit of his college dream continues and brings more challenges.

The 29-year-old aerobics teacher of Zhengzhou Sias University is leading Henan's ethnic aerobics team to compete in the 11th National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities in Henan's Zhengzhou only four years after he himself was a competitor.

"I am honored but responsible," said Sun, a member of the Hui ethnic group, who coaches a team of high school- and university-aged Uygur, Kazakh, Hui athletes together with Han students.

"I was selected to coach and represent my province because of my experience four years ago."

Ethnic aerobics combines traditional and ethnic dancing elements and sport aerobics. An ethnic aerobics athlete should be both power-based and artistic in their movements.

Each team features 16 performers with at least four male members. Teams perform a technical routine and a free routine for three minutes and 30 seconds each.

The sport was first adopted as an official competition in the Inner Mongolia Games, where Sun competed representing the host as a post-graduate student of Inner Mongolia Normal University. His team came in second.

Now coaching a team from different ethnic groups, Sun is looking to incorporate all the different traditions in their routines.

"We performed a lot of Inner Mongolian elements last time and now we are performing more Uygur," he said after a dress reherseal. "Because we have eight Uygur students and for me the Uygur movements are more expressive in the upper body."

That is how the sport training major coach tries to distinguish ethnic aerobics from ethnic dancing in appearance. "It is a sport so you need to show your strength and power, so we let the upper body do artistic and the limbs show strength."

He's popular with his students. Nana Rouzi, a third grade high school Uygur student from Zhengzhou No.7 Middle School, said she is becoming stronger both physically and mentally thanks to aerobics training.