ARTS & ARCHITECTURE
350 Cinema
Myanmar has had a modest fi lm industry since the early 20th century
and it continuestoday producing low-budget, uncontroversial action
pics, romances and comedies that are a staple of cinemas, village video-
screening halls and DVD sellers across the country. There’s even an
annual Academy Awards ceremony that is one of the country’s biggest
social events.
You’ll need to look to fi lm-makers outside Myanmar for movies and
documentaries that tackle some of the country’s more controversial top-
ics. Among recent documentaries available on video or doing the festival
rounds are Nic Dunlop’sBurma Soldierr (www.breakthrufi lms.org/burma
-soldier/), the moving story of a military recruit, who loses two limbs
to land mines and switches sides to become a democracy activist; Rex
Bloomstein’s This Prison Where I Live (http://thisprisonwhereilive.co.
MYANMAR’S SPORTING LIFEMartial arts are perhaps the longest-running sports that the people of Myanmar have
patronised: the oldest written references to kickboxing in the country are found in the
chronicles of warfare between Burma and Thailand during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The British introduced football (soccer) in the 19th century and it remains Myanmar’s
most popular spectator sport.Football
The 11-team Myanmar National League (http://myanmarnationalleague.com) was
launched in 2009. A US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks revealed that Senior
General Than Shwe had thought it would be politically more popular to instruct crony
businesses to create this league rather than spend US$1 billion on buying Manchester
United, as his grandson had advised. Local TV broadcasts European games and tea-
shops are invariably packed when a big match is screened.Martial Arts
Myanma let-hwei (Myanmar kickboxing) is very similar in style to muay thai (Thai kick-
boxing), although not nearly as well developed as a national sport.
The most common and traditional kickboxing venues are temporary rings set up in
a dirt circle (usually at paya pwe rather than sports arenas). All fi ghters are bare-fi sted.
All surfaces of the body are considered fair targets and any part of the body except the
head may be used to strike an opponent. Common blows include high kicks to the neck,
elbow thrusts to the face and head, knee hooks to the ribs and low crescent kicks to the
calf. Punching is considered the weakest of all blows and kicking merely a way to soften
up one's opponent; knee and elbow strikes are decisive in most matches.
Before the match begins, each boxer performs a dancelike ritual in the ring to pay
homage to Buddha and to Khun Cho and Khun Tha, the nat whose domain includes
Myanmar kickboxing. The winner repeats the ritual at the end of the match.Chinlon
Often called 'cane ball' in Burmese English, chinlon are games in which a woven rattan ball
about 5in in diameter is kicked around. It also refers to the ball itself. Informally, any num-
ber of players can form a circle and keep the chinlon airborne by kicking it soccer-style
from player to player; a lack of scoring makes it a favourite pastime with locals of all ages.
In formal play six players stand in a circle of 22ft circumference. Each player must
keep the ball aloft using a succession of 30 techniques and six surfaces on the foot and
leg, allotting fi ve minutes for each part. Each successful kick scores a point, while points
are subtracted for using the wrong body part or dropping the ball.
A popular variation – and the one used in intramural or international competitions –
is played with a volleyball net, using all the same rules as in volleyball except that only
the feet and head are permitted to touch the ball.