Introduction to Gulangyu Architecture - Former Residence of John Ma

No. 58 Zhangzhou Road in Gulangyu Island is a two-story four-style Western-style building built in the 19th century, and is the former residence of John Ma, the first sports professor in China.

Born in 1882 in Gulangyu Island, Ma Youjian lost his mother at the age of 3 and his father at the age of 7, living a lonely and miserable life with his brother, fortunately supported by the church, relatives and friends, and only entered the "Fumin Primary School" run by the church at the age of 13. At the age of 18, he was sent to Shanghai with his brother, mingqiang middle school run by the YMCA; 4 years later, St. John's College Preparatory Class; Two years later, he was promoted to a medical undergraduate class and graduated at the age of 29. Because he likes to climb mountains and swim since he was a child, he has developed a strong physique and is the main force of football, swimming, tennis, baseball, and athletics teams in college. In 1905, the Shanghai YMCA held the "World Athletics Games", in the 1 mile run, he has been more than 12 yards behind the Japanese athletes, the Japanese athletes are very arrogant, he is very contemptuous, determined to surpass the other side, so he sprinted hard, and the result was to lead 50 yards ahead of the Japanese runners and win the championship.

John Ma graduated from medicine, but he believed that curing the disease was the symptom, and strengthening the body was the cure, so he chose sports as his lifelong career. In 1919 and 1926, John Ma went to the Springfield Institute of Physical Education in the United States twice for further studies and received a master's degree in physical education. In 1920, he took over as the director of the sports department of Tsinghua Academy, which was originally an American. When he took office, he led his students to set 20 national athletics records, significantly surpassing his predecessors in the United States. In 1928, the school was changed to a university, and the president Luo Jialun believed that sports was a matter of coaxing children, and there was no need to set up a professor, and he was dismissed from his professorship and changed to "trainer". The following year, after the Tsinghua football team won the North China Football Championship, when he returned to school, the students carried him into the school gate and held a grand welcome party. President Luo deeply felt the "magic" of sports and resumed his teaching position. On the eve of the founding of New China in 1948, he was persuaded to leave Beijing. He said bluntly that no matter which party or society in the world must run sports," he said he would not leave, so many people could stay at Tsinghua with peace of mind. As soon as New China was founded, he passionately invested in the sports industry of New China, and spent 52 years at Tsinghua University until his death in 1966 at the age of 84.

John Ma served as the head coach of the Chinese track and field team at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, a member of the National Sports Commission in 1953, and the president of the National Games in 1956. He is the author of "The Migration Value of Sports", "My Sports Experience 14 Years" and so on. Chairman Mao said he was the healthiest man in New China." After the "Cultural Revolution", Tsinghua University set up the "Ma John Sports Reward Fund" and cast two bronze busts, one tree in Tsinghua and one in front of the Gulangyu People's Stadium for tourists to see.

Ma John's son, Professor Ma Qiwei, former president of the Beijing Sports Academy, is a volleyball expert: son-in-law Mou Zuoyun, a former basketball player, who participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and served as the president of the Chinese Basketball Association for a long time. Unfortunately, now there is no relative of Professor Ma John in Xiamen, his former residence is very old, the floor slabs, doors and windows have collapsed, a parasitic tree has grown on the corner of the wall, quite a bit of the ancestors have passed away, people go to the desolate emptiness of the building, only the window glass is still the blue embossed glass of the year, through which you can also faintly see the charm of the year.

Today, the property rights to professor John Ma's house have been transferred. The new owner has made overall maintenance of the villa, fortunately the shape of the villa has not changed, but the newly pasted tiles make the villa look new, surrounded by buildings and longan trees, like a new villa.