BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Wushu, the world famous Chinese martial arts, has a long way to go for its popularity among the ordinary people, said Hollywood Kung Fu star Jet Li, the goodwill ambassador of 9th World Wushu Championships, here on Monday.

    "It still needs several generation's efforts to make Wushu popular among the common people," said Jet Li at press conference of the World Wushu Championships, which attracted a record participant of nearly 1,000 athletes from 89 countries and regions.

    After watching the morning's competitive events, Li expressed his concern about Wushu's prospect. "I feel a little complicated after seeing many seats still available during the match. I think we should start from the very beginning now and do some actual work to let the common people enjoy it."

    With more people choosing Taekwondo or Judo instead of Wushu as their body-building fashion, Li shared his distinct view on the development of Wushu: "Chinese Wushu needs a proper style to fit everyone and be suitable for the 21st century. We might combine America's marketing and Japan's discipline with China's philosophy to make it meet the needs of everyone."

    Since the 5th National Games in Shanghai in 1983, Li has been away from competitive Wushu events for more than 20 years. After he became a famous action movie star, many of his works have been contributing to the development of Chinese Wushu and its popularization around the world.

    When he was 40 years old, Li was committed to charity work and determined to promote Chinese culture to the world.

    According to him, the ethics of Wushu is profound and should be shared by everyone.

    "Wushu is for peace instead of fight just as I demonstrated in my movies like 'Hero' and 'Danny the Dog'. It does not only improve people's physical health but also the spiritual culture.

    "The spirit of Wushu acts like humanity, harmony and mutual care, which should be shared by the whole world as we are all global citizens and should always think more about others."

    Though Wushu failed to become Olympics' official program, Li thought the spirit counts more.

    "Being in the Olympics is not that important, what's important is that we should never give up, which is also the spirit of both Olympics and Wushu," said Li. "It requires the continuous effort of several generations and I believe one day Wushu will be very popular around the world."