Parkour: leaps of faith and dreams

Tan Xiaofan, a parkour enthusiast, combines extreme sports with traditional Chinese culture, promoting modern movement and heritage preservation.

Lion dancing, martial arts, a small town in Guangdong, and physical labor — these are the threads that weave together the story of A Juan in the hit animated film I Am What I Am (2021). But they also run deep in the life of Tan Xiaofan, a young man whose journey mirrors that of the protagonist.

Tan, 27, from Dongguan, Guangdong, was naturally drawn to heights as a child, often climbing trees and scaling walls. This instinct led him to martial arts and parkour training in middle school.

After failing to gain college admission, Tan worked a series of jobs, including summer stints at a martial arts school, as a trampoline assistant, and as a taekwondo coach.

Yet, his love for parkour never wavered. He continued to train, compete, and win awards, integrating martial arts and parkour techniques into lion dance performances. Today, he has reinvented himself as an extreme sports vlogger with over 2.4 million followers on Douyin, China's version of TikTok.

Tan admits that he "had no talent" for academics, and his family never expected him to excel in that area. Coming from a humble background, his parents had hoped he would follow a more traditional path — learning a trade, securing a stable job, perhaps running a breakfast stall, becoming a barber, or working in auto repair. His pursuit of parkour, even while juggling various jobs, received little support from his family.

"I can't say for sure if it was rebellion or passion that drove me," he said. "But as long as I could make ends meet, I felt I could keep going."

When Tan watched I Am What I Am, the film struck a chord deep within him, bringing tears to his eyes and sending shivers down his spine. "How could it be so much like my own life?" he wondered. "Every young person pursuing a niche sport faces the same struggles — being unable to support themselves and dealing with family disapproval. These experiences are so relatable."

A sport of freedom

Despite the challenges, the strong allure of parkour drove this real-life A Juan to push past obstacles and keep moving forward.

Tan describes the experience as exhilarating — a feeling of transcending ordinary life and soaring through the air.

"Every kid has a martial arts dream, picturing themselves as an ancient hero leaping across rooftops. Many of the martial arts TV shows I watched as a child were full of parkour elements," he explained.

Tan sees many connections between martial arts and parkour: numerous techniques used by martial arts stunt performers — such as front flips, backflips, wall runs, and high jumps — are also fundamental parkour moves. The physical conditioning and basic training in martial arts lay a solid foundation, making it easier to master new parkour skills.

"Every time I conquer a challenge or learn a new move, I feel a rush of excitement. The better I got, the more I fell in love with the sport," he said.

Parkour is also a sport fueled by imagination. Tan explained that it is mainly divided into two categories: speed running and free running. The former focuses on quickly traversing obstacles, emphasizing speed, while the latter allows for various moves to be incorporated, with fluidity, style, execution, and difficulty as the key evaluation criteria.

"Free running is your moment to showcase your creativity. If your imagination is big enough and you come up with a routine no one has seen before, you might become famous or score high in competitions with just one move," he said.

Free running is Tan's favorite and strongest discipline. Since 2021, he has won several championships in various free running competitions.

Tan describes his style as "vigorous yet casual".

"Others might need a lot of effort to pull off a move, but I can do it effortlessly. It's quite visually appealing," he said.

Tradition integrated

After Tan's parkour career took off, he was invited in 2023 to film a video combining parkour with the traditional Chinese art of dashuhua, or "striking iron flowers" — a technique that creates dazzling sparks by hitting molten iron.

For the video, he attached small fireworks to his feet and performed parkour moves, producing a spectacular display of sparks. The video went viral, amassing over 12 million likes to date.

This experience inspired Tan to merge modern sports with more traditional cultural elements.

Having grown up watching lion dance performances in Guangdong, he noticed that the movements required to navigate the high poles were strikingly similar to parkour techniques. This realization led him to choreograph a lion dance routine incorporating leaps from high poles and dynamic parkour moves.

Building on this idea, Tan explored over a dozen forms of Chinese intangible cultural heritage, including Wing Chun, tai chi, Wudang sword, Cantonese Opera, and Yingge dance. He refreshed these traditional arts with parkour style, creating new combinations.

"Just like a company needs new talent to grow, traditional culture must break free from certain entrenched impressions to thrive," he said.

"When you combine it with parkour, people get curious about this unexpected fusion, and their interest is aroused. I believe that igniting curiosity is key to spreading culture," he added.

Initially, Tan saw parkour as just a profession, but over time, he found himself becoming a cultural ambassador.

"This is something I never imagined or even dared to dream of," he said. "Being able to promote intangible cultural heritage through parkour fills me with both emotion and excitement. It's not just a passion — it's a mission and an honor."

guiqian@i21st.cn