The day after my visit to Zhongshan Park, I get up early morning at 6 :am to meet spinning top players in Yanjiang Park. I have already been there two times, and in vain, during my previous trip to Wuhan, but now that I know better spinning tops players habits, I’m leaving more confident and I think I have a chance to meet a few without having to walk the three kilometres of this park that stretches along the river.
This morning, the weather is biting cold when I get out of the hotel and take my way to Yanjiang Park. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the entrance of the Park and start walking along the main promenade which overlooks a Plaza located at the level of the river. There, alternate beds of trees and playgrounds; the latter being paved, they are so many places to practice Chinese tops that I scan carefully. And this time, my efforts are rewarded, after one kilometre, I start hearing the beat of sticks and I simultaneously view a group of players which stay below the promenade.
Park plan
A 15 kg spinning top
Time for me to approach, I arrive just in time to see a man packing a 15 kg spinning top; I recognize him, this is a player who practices the whip in the square located next to the hotel and I have already met several times. He has probably said that he came here in the morning for training but it is an information that I did not understand. Anyway, it will make the contact easier ; while I unpacks my equipment he explaines other people that I’m ‘the French man’ who comes to Wuhan to practice Chinese spinning top, that my wife is Chinese and that we live in Zhanjiang.
I quickly notice that here the players profile is different from those of Zhongshan Park; not necessarily younger but more sports. Here people play 8 to 15 kg spinning top with sticks of 1.5 m or 1.8 meters and my ‘little’ 1.3 meter stick seems a little inappropriate. But regardless, I just found me a “coach” that makes a dazzling demonstration and explains me the stick handling. He does not speak a word of English, he doesn’t look very young but he is quite healthy. As he will confess later, he is 66 years old.
Women play too…
After this first memorable training, I take a break and go take pictures on the playground; It’s a beautiful weather, cold and dry, with clear sky and the Sun which rises across the river; ideal for shooting pictures. I can’t miss this opportunity and I reach the other side of the esplanade where a group of players is installed; not by rivalry or incompatibility of mood but for practical reasons: it is that there are other banks where you can let your bag and your equipment. Among these players, I notice two women; the fact is rare enough to be noted, particularly as they wield the stick with dexterity. They do not pray to make me a demonstration, each in turn, and I shoot the scene not to lose a moment. They play with obvious pleasure, smiling up to ears and a fluidity in movement that impresses me. It will probably take me years to reach this perfection!
A new stick
Meanwhile, my “coach” joined me and explain me that I need a stick like that; not a stick of a meter eighty but a meter fifty one. He calls one of his colleagues who seems to provide most of the players from the square and plays matchmaker; He speaks no more English than an hour ago but made a Chinese-Chinese translation with great gestures and facial expressions. I understood; tomorrow his colleague will bring the stick that fits to me. Which price? I do not know. But as I already spent long hours on the Chinese Web looking for this kind of equipment, I begin to have a fairly accurate idea of the cost. I know that I will probably pay a little bit more than local peoples because I am foreigner and “I have money” but there’s no scam in the air. Here we are not at Beijing flea market nor Jade market in Guangzhou.
A photographer
The next day about 7 o’clock, I’m back at Yanjiang Park where I find the regulars. My coach has not yet arrived, nor the man who shall bring me the stick but I keep on training, trying to remember the movements I learnt the day before. I’m still not at the top but I feel it’s coming: the position in relation to the spinning top, the stick handling with both hands. In fact, it is a little bit like golf, a sport that I’ve never played but I’ve seen enough stories to get an idea. There is still a big difference; at golf one hits only once and follows the ball curve hopping that it will go the right way. With Chinese spinning top, you need follow up shots in a circular movement to keep the spinning top spining. And then it becomes immediately more complicated.
My coach finally arrives ; I take a break to get my camera and tend him asking him to make some photos; as much to check my posture than to show my wife stayed in Zhanjiang. I setup the camera in auto mode and in practice he just needs to adjust the frame and press the shutter release button; that’s what I explain him by gesture because my Chinese vocabulary on this topic is rather limited.
It is at this point that comes on the square a photographer; a not too much young man, with a adventurer’s look, an army jacket, a camera shoulder bag and a SLR camera equipped with a large telephoto lens in hand. First, I believe it is a professional photographer working probably for one of the Wuhan newspapers. But a doubt grabs me when my coach tends him my camera and asks him to take some pictures; the man has trouble using it and prefers to use his own camera. Regardless, it takes a series of photos and I ask him to send its to my address QQ (the Chinese equivalent of MSN or Facebook). We exchange our QQ numbers and he writes his name on a piece of paper.
