Reviving traditional Chinese archery

Zheng demonstrates an archery movement for his students.Zhu Feng / For China Daily

For Zheng, this embodies the positive attributes that archery can instill in its practitioners and he places greater emphasis on these, rather than an individual archer's results.

The form of archery he has developed even has the archers salute one another and their targets before beginning.

This focus on the sport's ability to nurture positive qualities in those who practice it stems back to 2006, when Zheng noticed big changes in his son after he took up Japanese archery.

"He was no longer self-centered, but actively cared for other people," Zheng recalled.

"He once helped a classmate who had a hurt leg get to school every day for a week, and he is more self-disciplined, such as with his new habit of getting up at 6 am every day."

Zheng was so impressed by the changes he had observed in his son that he decided to learn Japanese archery himself. "I found it was really good for cultivating positive qualities," he said.