Sports or entertainment activities in Tu areas are closely related to productive labor, traditional habits, religious beliefs, national historical origins, etc., with healthy content and diverse forms. On every grand festival, the Tu people gather together in costumes and engage in cultural and sports entertainment activities such as horse racing, wrestling, singing "Hua'er" and performing martial arts. The traditional entertainment projects of the Tu ethnic group are mainly divided into games, chess, juggling, etc. Among them, the game category includes "Amahal" (a game played by children and teenagers) and "Dagang" (a game played by teenagers while grazing), and the chess category includes "Four Doors" and "Xiayouguo" , "Down below" and "Driving Cows", etc., and juggling categories include rotating eggs, shuttlecock kicking, etc.
Tu nationality has various sports and entertainment activities. Wheel Qiu, a traditional sports event, is one of the unique ones, which is quite like an aerial performance by an acrobat. Wheel Autumn is mainly popular in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province.
In the past, during the slack seasons, especially during the Spring Festival, people often removed the "upper leg" of the horse-drawn cart - the shed, and put up the "lower leg" - the wheel and axle as a whole. . Place heavy objects such as stones on the wheels that touch the ground to keep the center of gravity stable and balanced. A three- to four-meter-long ladder is tied across the upper wheel. A "U"-shaped (swing-shaped) seat cover is tied to each end of the ladder. During the competition, each two people sit on the swing set, and then spin the wheel vigorously. The one who spins for a long time without getting dizzy or dazzled wins. It is a popular sports and entertainment activity for men, women, old and young. Teenagers especially love it.
Later, the Tu people continued to improve the wheel autumn. Nowadays, most wheels are welded from steel pipes and equipped with ball bearings, which is more scientific, safer and more convenient to use. In recent years, Wheel Autumn has been listed as a performance or competition event at the National Farmers' Games and National Games, which has given new vitality to this ancient sports and entertainment activity of the Tu people.
Tu herdsmen like to compete in strength. Waist pulling is such a folk activity. Two young men stood facing each other, hugged each other's waist from the right side, each inserted their right leg between the other's legs, in a half-squat position, straightened their waists, and raised their heads. When the referee issued an order, both parties held their breath and exerted force at the same time. Want to pick up the other person. The winner is whoever gets the opponent's feet off the ground first.
Peding with sticks is a favorite sports activity of the Tu people in Qinghai and the Tianzhu Tibetan people in Gansu. During the competition, two people sit opposite each other on the ground with their legs stretched out together. They hold a wooden stick 0.5 to 1 meter long, with the soles of their feet touching each other. At the same time, they use the strength of their feet, waist and arms to pull the other up, and their buttocks are pulled up. The one pulling away from the ground is negative. The knees cannot be bent when pulling.
Tuyuhun, the ancestors of the Tu nationality, had surnames such as Murong very early. Later, due to the influence of Han culture, they gradually adopted Han surnames. During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the upper-class nobles were granted titles and changed their surnames, which became popular among common people. The number of Tu surnames increased significantly. With the development of Tu society and the integration of ethnic groups, surnames have continued to evolve and increase, from the original compound surnames to single surnames. For example, "Suohu" is called "Hu", "Dowa" is called "Dong", "Lasi" is called "Niu" and so on. And formed the Tu nationality's own "hundred family surnames". The surnames of the Tu nationality may come from the name of the place where they live, or from the Chinese free translation of the Tu language, or from the surname given by the emperor, or from the surnames of other ethnic groups.
In the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, except for a few people who were given Han surnames and names by the emperor, the names of the Tu people generally used names named in their own ethnic language. Later, as the relationship between the Tu people and the Han and Tibetan people became increasingly close, as well as due to religious beliefs and other reasons, the names of the Tu people were deeply influenced by Tibetan and Han culture. The Tu people differentiate between men and women when naming. Men have male names and women have female names. The naming method is to add one or two characters to distinguish the male and female names after the name. For example, for male names, add the character "宝" to the end of the name, and for female names, add the characters "jie", "苏", etc.