My name is Wang Deqing, chairman of the Chanwu International Alliance. For decades, I have dedicated myself to promoting traditional Chinese martial arts culture across Europe. Guangdong is the land where I took root after returning from overseas, enabling my overseas martial arts mission to settle in China and serve as a bridge connecting China with the world.
In my early years, I traveled to Hungary to promote Chinese martial arts and founded the Chanwu International Alliance in Budapest in 2003, guiding hundreds of thousands of overseas disciples in martial arts practice and moral cultivation. I served as chief combat instructor of the Hungarian Special Police and was elected executive vice chairman of the Hungary-China Police Exchange Association. I have strived to promote extensive exchanges and cooperation between Hungary and China in various fields, gaining wide international recognition and fostering profound friendship between the two countries. Based overseas but always devoted to my motherland, I have long aspired to bring mature international cultural exchange experience back to China and build a platform for mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations.
Chen Shuang, then-director of the Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau, renews the cooperation agreement at the Hungarian Parliament Building during her visit to Hungary in 2024.
In 2005, an overseas research delegation from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government visited Hungary. I was honored to meet the leading officials, and this cross-border encounter forged an indissoluble bond between me and Guangdong. As a major overseas Chinese hometown and a frontier of China's opening-up, Guangdong boasts profound cultural heritage and an inclusive vision, and pays great attention to overseas Chinese affairs and international cultural communication. Its pragmatic and open atmosphere deeply inspired me and strengthened my resolve to settle in Guangdong and devote myself to Sino-foreign martial arts cultural exchanges.
After three years of thorough preparation and coordination, with the strong support and promotion of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government, I cooperated with Guangdong Overseas Chinese Vocational and Technical School and officially inaugurated the Chinese Traditional Culture Inheritance Base · Chanwu Center in Guangzhou in 2009. As the first official domestic inheritance base of the Chanwu International Alliance, it marked the official return and localized development of my overseas cultural cause in Lingnan.
Since its establishment in Guangdong, the base has grown into an important window for Sino-foreign martial arts cultural exchanges. Groups of overseas learners and overseas Chinese teenagers from more than 20 countries, including Hungary, Germany, Spain and Australia, have come to Guangdong for cultural study and exchange. I have set up a professional coaching and teaching team to carry out standardized daily teaching. We not only inherit authentic traditional Chinese martial arts techniques, but also uphold the traditional Chinese philosophy of "practicing martial arts to foster virtue and cultivating oneself to rectify the mind."
The Chanwu International Alliance has maintained long-term and sound interactive cooperation with the Guangdong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Over the years, taking martial arts culture as a link, the two sides have co-hosted signature youth exchange programs such as the "Guangdong-Friend Tour" and continuously received student and teacher delegations from the Hungarian-Chinese bilingual school for study tours in Guangdong. Disciples of the alliance have repeatedly performed on the stage of major provincial foreign exchange activities, demonstrating the charm of traditional Chinese martial arts, building a bridge of people-to-people friendship between Guangdong and Central and Eastern Europe, and helping tell wonderful stories of Guangdong's foreign exchanges. Immersed in Lingnan culture and local customs in Guangdong, foreign participants truly perceive a real, three-dimensional and warm China through martial arts.
With the support of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Chanwu International Alliance cooperated with Guangdong Overseas Chinese Vocational and Technical School to establish the Guangdong Chanwu Culture Center in May 2009.
With my career rooted in Guangdong for nearly two decades, I have been deeply engaged in the province's foreign affairs and overseas Chinese undertakings. Serving as executive director of the Guangdong Overseas Exchange Association and a non-voting delegate to the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, I have actively offered suggestions from the perspective of overseas Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges. Relying on Guangdong's open international platform, I have actively served the overall situation of national foreign friendship. I have many times participated in and received high-level delegations led by Mr. Lajos Oláh, then-Vice Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly and president of the Hungary-China Friendship Association, during their visits to Guangdong and China, facilitating high-level friendly exchanges and cultural and economic cooperation between Guangdong and Hungary. Meanwhile, Chinese and foreign disciples of the Chanwu International Alliance frequently participate in major Sino-foreign cultural exchange activities across the province, fully showcasing the unique charm of Lingnan culture and traditional Chinese martial arts on the international stage and presenting vivid and authentic stories of Guangdong to European people.
2025 GD&U Tour: Guangdong Cultural Spring Camp for Hungarian Youths
Under the guidance of Guangdong provincial and municipal education authorities, the Chanwu International Alliance has vigorously promoted the integration of traditional Chinese sports and martial arts culture into campus education. Adhering to the educational philosophy of "all-round development of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor," we integrate traditional etiquette, inner spiritual cultivation and physical fitness education into primary and secondary school quality-oriented education. With the continuous support of Guangdong Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office and the Guangdong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, we have cultivated local professional coaching teams and developed standardized school-based courses, enabling authentic traditional Chinese martial arts culture to take deep root in Guangdong campuses, nurture Lingnan youngsters and realize the in-depth integration of cultural inheritance and moral education.
2025 GD&U Tour: Guangdong Cultural Spring Camp for Hungarian Youths
Although Guangdong is not my ancestral hometown, an overseas encounter in 2005 connected my life and career closely with this vibrant land. Taking root in Guangdong in 2009 has become the most crucial turning point in my life and career. With extraordinary inclusiveness, Guangdong embraces overseas cultural undertakings and enables traditional martial arts culture to become a distinctive name card for the province's international exchanges.
Martial arts transcend national borders, while culture preserves eternal roots and souls. From the fateful encounter in 2005 and the official settlement in 2009 to nearly two decades of persistent dedication, my bond with Guangdong crosses mountains and seas and grows stronger over time. In the future, I will continue to take root in Guangdong and connect with the world. Taking martial arts as a lasting bridge for international friendship and cultural exchange, I will keep boosting Sino-foreign friendly interactions, let the world witness the charm of Guangdong and help Lingnan culture shine on the global stage.
The author is Wang Deqing, chairman of the Chanwu International Alliance.
Photos provided to South by the author
