In regards to the Ssireum games development and expansion in the ethnic Korean settlement in China, the first evidence discovered was a painting called “Ssireum Wrestling” by an artist named Jinhong Dao in the eighteenth century (Fig. 13.2). Since then it became difficult to find any more information or documentation concerning ssireum wrestling.

In China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture,¹ sporting event records in regards to ssireum first appeared after World War II, on August 16, 1949 edition of Northeast Korean People’s Daily, the newspaper was modern day Yanbian Daily’s predecessor. Founded in 1948, editions were published in Korean until 10 years later; in 1958 it was officially inaugurated into Chinese language version, re-named The Yanbian Daily.

It was written that day in the newspaper, that the first officially organized ssireum competition since WWII that took place in Yanbian ethnic Korean region on August 15th to 17th, 1949, one of the post-war game competitions that had taken place in Yanbian (Unknown China’s Republic Year 38, August 1). Among various game categories, through visiting the elderly who had watched that game, it is learned that the competition teams were based on villages, rather than they are now intertwined with festivals and spread throughout the region. The game was chosen on August 15th, a date which also contains the meaning to memorialize the end of the war, thus it can be said that the game was organized to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the war.

Regional sports competitions were also held in 1950, in which ssireum was competed by individual athletes, in 1951 team ssireum competitions began.

Beginning in 1952, when the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture was formally established, the ssireum game day would be held on September 3rd annually, aim to commemorate the establishment of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. And there after 1955, Prefecture-level Games would be held on August 15th, with the village-level ssireum games held on Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

“People’s Republic of China Regional Autonomy Rules” enacted in 1984, provides power to ethnic minorities in China and enjoy regional autonomy. In accordance to the ethnicities in the autonomous areas, there are three level of classifications: autonomous region, autonomous prefecture, and autonomous county; Yanbian ethnic Korean region is an autonomous prefecture. On December 20th, 1955, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture held its first People’s Congress 2nd Meeting, this renamed Yanbian ethnic Korean Autonomous Region to Autonomous Prefecture. The Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture will have jurisdiction over Yanji (延吉市), Tumen (图们市), Dunhua (敦化市), Hunchun (珲春市), Longjing (龙井市), Helong (和龙市), Wangqing (汪清市), and Antu (安图市). Yanji will be the Prefecture’s capital (대한씨름협회 n.d.).

Autonomous Prefecture Games held can be traced back to 1962, this prefecture wide games competition was intended to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the autonomous prefecture’s establishment, this lasted from August 30th to September 4th, Ssireum was among the sports featured during this time. Before this, the autonomous prefecture had not held any major sport or culture events, this is because since the beginning of 1959–1961, China experienced “Three years of hardship” (Yanbian Daily 1962). These 3 years of hardship were due to the Great Leap Forward Policy enacted by the government. The policy was aimed to shift heavy development from agriculture to industrials, allowing China to become a major industrial country as soon as possible, but to the newly founded republic that is not yet even 10 years old, is unrealistic. Due to several years of unscientific regress, resulted in nationwide food shortage and famine. Between 1959 and 1961, there are approximately 36,020,000 people that died from famine (China Census Bureau, 1995, Beijing; China Statistics Press, 1995, p 355, 384).

Yanbian Daily reported in details of the games on August 30, September 3rd, 4th and the 6th respectively. On September 4th, Yanbian Daily published with “Festive Yanji City” as its title, reported with a layout of full-page photos taken at the Autonomous Prefecture Games festivities; of these photos, Ssireum was one of the sports featured. On September 6th, the Yanbian Daily wrote the following on its front page: “This Autonomous Prefecture Game started on August 30, lasted a total of 6 days, in terms of size and number of participating athletes, is unprecedented. Majority of the audience praised especially the traditional folk styled sports. On this day, honorary guests and various senior officials came to congratulate our autonomous prefecture’s 10 year commemoration at the Game’s closing ceremony, they together with over 30,000 spectators watched the wonderful and intense Ssireum championship game, and photographed together with referees and elite athletes of Ssireum and swing.” The report also described in detail the final Ssireum game, and as it ended, the vice chairman of the Autonomous Prefecture Games announced the successful end to the Games. Until now, the final Ssireum game is still arranged at the opening or closing ceremony of Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture Games every year, this demonstrates Ssireum’s significance in the ethnic Korean people’s minds.

Through interviews with the Yanbian State Sports Council officials, we learned that in the earlier years of Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture Games, it was only held every 5 years when there was also a commemoration celebration. Therefore, in the following years of 1963–1967, there were no Autonomous Prefecture Games nor Ssireum Competitions. Only in 1964, Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture’s capital Yanji City, held a Jilin Province wrestling competition, though this was not an ethnic Korean Ssireum competition, Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture’s athletes were able to place 1st in 10 out of 16 categories, and of these ten 1st place winners, five were ethnic Korean athletes.

During the decade of 1966–1976, Yanbian no longer held any sports games due to the Cultural Revolution. During these 10 years, there were also no Ssireum games. Only in 1975 at the end of the Cultural Revolution, China’s capital Beijing held the Third National Game, which also included ethnic minority sports performances. Therefore on September 14, 1975, the Yanbian Daily printed three reports on China promoting minority sports, one of which was devoted to the Korean swing and springboard sport, but did not mention Ssireum (Cultural Revolution, n.d.).

In 1978, from August 23rd to 26th, Yanbian held its first Autonomous Prefecture Games since the end of the Cultural Revolution. On August 29th of 1978, the Yanbian Daily reported the following: “prefecture-wide Ssireum games has been held for the first time since the end of the Cultural Revolution, participating teams include Yanji City, Yanji County, Helong, Antu, Wangqing, Hunchun, six counties and 51 athletes in total”. The competition included Chinese styled wrestling and ethnic Korean Ssireum; Chinese styled wrestling included weight classes of: 48 kg, 52 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 68 kg, 74 kg, 82 kg, and 90 kg. Ethnic Korean Ssireum weight class included: 65 kg and below, 65–75 kg, and above 75 kg.

A truly organized and large scaled kind of Ssireum game in the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture was unfolded after 1949, especially in 1952 with the establishment of Yanbian Prefecture (Janji City Census Report Year 2012 (2012)). To commemorate the Yanbian Prefecture’s establishment, frequency of sports games were increased, massive competitions were organized around the dates of August 15th – Victory Day and September 3rd – anniversary of the establishment of Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture; both dates contained very strong political significance. Yet the truly representative of the traditional Chinese festivals, those festivals in which ethnic Koreans attach great importance to, such as Dragon Boat Festival and Chuseok Festival, have not have any organized sporting event. These are only two of many traditional Korean festivals, in ancient times, the people who lived the Korean and Qing Dynasties would often hold ssireum games during these festivals. In addition, through interviews, we learned that at that time, there were no comprehensive rules or organizations for Ssireum, people just carry out Ssireum games according to traditions left by the previous generation, game management is relatively loose. Therefore, the situation of that time also helped to contribute to the birth of official Ssireum rules.