Abstract: A genealogical study of the historical materials on Wushu in the Republic of China reveals that, on the one hand, the social elites associated people's body with the national body through the discourse of building a strong nation and a strong race, thus promoting the progress of national civilization by expanding the scope of the national body's empowerment through "women's participation in Wushu practice", and alluding to the new forces of the nation through the in-depth expropriation of the "boy scout body". On the other hand, they used the discourse of "sick man" in comparing the East and the West to serve the purposes of making educational exploration of Wushu and starting a new journey of athleticization, thereby shaping the discourse of national identity and power consciousness against the backdrop of indigenous-foreign sports controversy. In short, in the modern field of nation-state discourse, the "tangibility" and "nationality" of Wushu made it become the most useful tool in rejuvenating the nation and forging a sense of shared state community. As a result, people's body became the very embodiment of imaginary shared state community. However, its controversial stance in priding its tradition and looking upon to the Western sports put it in a dilemma of learning from the West while competing against the West.

Key words: The Republic of China, social elites, nation-state, Wushu, body knowledge, discourse, genealogy