How Did a Winter Wall Become a Squeezing Game?

Ji youzha, literally “squeezing oil dregs”, was one name used in some places for a collective winter game. Children stood shoulder to shoulder along a sunny wall and pressed towards the middle from both ends, or as two sides. Whoever was squeezed out might rejoin at the edge or lose the round, depending on rules agreed at the time. Names, calls and winning conditions varied from place to place.

There was no object to take home; the game’s only “equipment” was a wall already in the schoolyard. It is often remembered as a cold-weather recess game. With thick padded clothing and limited space, a close-packed group warmed up quickly. The children had to settle whether hands were allowed, where an expelled player could return, how long the line should be and which part of the wall was safe. Strength mattered, but so did footing, the direction of pressure through the shoulder and knowing when to move with the line.

Seen in the setting of Chinese schools in the 1970s and early 1980s, its character as play becomes clearer. A shortage of purpose-made equipment did not make the activity merely makeshift. A wall, winter sunlight, padded coats and a ten-minute break were reorganised into a shared pattern of action. Close bodily pressure could also cause falls or collisions, so the remembered game should not be romanticised as something to reproduce today without safeguards.

What ji youzha left behind was not an artefact but a temporary order: bodies gathered, rules emerged on the spot, and warmth and laughter turned a cold interval into play. A history of childhood toys must also make room for bodies, spaces and seasons.

https://culture.southcn.com/node_9c13b33f74/bd23d2f3f3.shtml
https://www.52huaijiu.com/nostalgia/50.html