History

During the 1960s and the early 70s japanese martial arts became very popular in Belgium. At that time the whole world discovered kungfu through movies and the hugely succesful TV-series Kung Fu with David Carradine. But China was still a closed country and there were almost no opportunities to learn the art.

By the end of the 1970s there were a few teachers in Belgium and in 1978 the Belgian Wushu Federation (BWUF) was officially incorporated as an NPO under Belgian law (vzw/asbl).  Mr. José Polet, a Belgian business man was one of the leading figures during the first decade of the existence of the BWUF. He was supported by a few other young enthusiastic followers of this Chinese art, Mr. Patrick Van Campenhout, Mr. Hamid Abroudi, Mr. Roland Quenon and Mr. Marc Heyvaert, amongst others, who until this day continue to be at the center of the BWUF.

The Belgian federation was one of the first federations for wushu on the European continent and soon after its foundation the Belgians made contacts with other European countries and this resulted in the first European Wushu Championship being organised in Brussels in 1986. The BWUF was also the leading party in the foundation of the European Wushu Federation and was essential in the day-to-day running of this organisation in its early years. For many years the important functions of treasurer, secretary-general and vice-president were Belgian responsibilities.

Belgium is a country with 3 communities according to their mother tongue being dutch, french or german. Sport is not a national competence, each community has its own policy with regard to sport. It soon became clear that in this context The BWUF could not function as a national federation of wushu clubs, teachers and athletes directly and so two regional federations, the 'Vlaamse Wushu Federatie' for Flanders and dutch speaking clubs in Brussels and the 'Fédération Francophone de Wushu' for Wallonia and french speaking clubs in Brussels, were founded. The German speaking community in Belgium is very small only comprising 9 towns and there is no separate organisation active in that region.