The Duan Grade Examination & Evaluation Center and the External Liaison Center
The Macao Wushu Association has 126 affiliated clubs and 9,300 members, and has successfully hosted international events such as the World Wushu Championships, greatly raising Macau's international profile. Located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Macau holds unique locational value as an important bridge between the mainland and international markets. The Association can use this advantage to strengthen cooperation with other Bay Area cities, advancing Wushu regionally and then globally.
Wushu's inclusion at the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games is a highlight that opens an unprecedented window for international transmission. Yet significant gaps remain: insufficient penetration of European and American markets, a looming crisis of broken lineages in traditional styles with many precious skills at risk of being lost, and a shortage of localised talent. Wushu must draw on its own cultural depth and combine it with modern communication methods to achieve broader international reach.
The current Duan-grade system is competition-oriented and unsuited to traditional styles, leaving their skill levels without a unified standard. By contrast, Japanese and Korean martial arts have industrialised their grading systems, offering a useful reference. A unified Duan standard is crucial for certifying coaches and judges — ensuring fairness and authority — and is also of core value in protecting traditional styles, encouraging more people to learn and inherit them.
One of the Center's core tasks is to formulate graded evaluation rules for each traditional style. Its promotion path uses a 12-level, nine-Duan system that gives practitioners clear goals, positioned as a complement to the competitive Duan system — competitive Wushu emphasises technical difficulty and performance, while traditional Wushu emphasises cultural attributes, fitness and accessibility. To align internationally, the standard connects with those of the International Wushu Federation's 160 member states.
An integrated "student – coach – judge" management model is the core of the Center's market operation: for coaches, a qualification-certification and continuing-education system; for judges, tiered assessment. Youth Duan courses are designed around young people's physical and psychological characteristics. Digital collaboration with the "Kungfu Manual App" enables information sharing — students can learn and register for exams online, while coaches and judges undertake online training and assessment.
Drawing on the reference case of 535 examination points, the Center explores a commercial-licensing model for examination sites — authorising qualified institutions or individuals to set them up and widen coverage. Developing Duan-related products — grade apparel, smart evaluation equipment and the like — is another important direction, adding revenue while strengthening the Wushu brand image.
The Liaison Center will integrate the teaching systems, event resources and cultural features of the 160 member associations of the International Wushu Federation into a comprehensive, systematic international database that supports global transmission. The data serves not only display but also market analysis — for example analysing "Belt and Road" countries' preferences — and a global distribution map of lineage inheritors that provides a basis for protecting endangered styles.
By cooperating with international sports organisations and national Wushu associations, the Center will build internationally influential event platforms. Overseas Wushu culture centres are another key direction (for example, working with the Belgian Wushu federation); it will also develop "Wushu + tourism" products in partnership with martial-arts holy sites such as Mount Emei and Mount Wudang. Overseas Chinese communities play a vital hub role in transmission abroad, and the Center will make full use of their resources.
The Center designs a dual-track plan of "exporting certified coaches + cultivating local masters": selecting outstanding Chinese coaches to teach worldwide, while training local talent into home-grown masters suited to their culture and market. Multi-language teaching materials are essential, accounting for the needs of Portuguese-speaking and other regions. Through a multi-level, multi-channel communication framework, Chinese Wushu can reach every corner of the world.
Duan certification and international promotion reinforce one another. A standardised certification system acts as a precise yardstick that greatly increases overseas trust in Chinese Wushu, attracting more people to learn. International demand in turn feeds back into the iteration of Duan products, prompting the Center to keep refining standards and content. The extension of the event-economy chain completes the industrial ecosystem — events drive ticket and merchandise sales while providing a practical platform for certification, further advancing the synergy between certification and international promotion.