Shaolin, Wudang to present Kungfu at Expo

SHANGHAI - Shaolin and Wudang, two leading schools of Chinese martial arts, will both stage performances at the next year's Shanghai World Expo, offering a Kungfu gala for fans from around the globe.

It will be the first time for Shaolin monks and Wudang Taoists to perform at the World Expo that has a history of 158 years, as Shi Yongxin, principal abbot of Shaolin Temple from central China's Henan Province, and Li Guangfu, president of Mt. Wudang Taoist Association from central Hubei Province, singed here Tuesday performance agreements with the Shanghai World Expo organizers.

Shaolin, in cooperation with Chinese, Australian and German artists, has produced a 45-minute stage play that tells a story of the cultivation and growth of little Shaolin monks in four scenes of the four seasons in a year. Dances, acrobatics and multi-media art forms can also bee seen in the play.

The stage play, titled "Shaolin Temple: Saga of Warriors Monks, " will be performed at designated theaters in Shanghai for two months during the Expo.

In addition, Shaolin monks will present a total of 736 Kungfu shows in the half year when the Expo is held, about four per day.

The Shanghai World Expo, with the theme of "Better City, Better Life," will be held from May 1 to October 31 next year and is expected to attract 70 million visitors.

"In Kungfu shows, Shaolin monks will carry out exchanges with spectators and teach them face-to-face some ways to strengthen their bodies and preserve a good health," Shi said.

"Monks will also perform the famous 'Shaolin 72 stunts' that are exclusive to Shaolin Kungfu, such as the forefinger deep meditation stunt and the iron cloth stunt," he said.

For Wudang, which is well-known for being a holy land of Taoism and its "Taijiquan," a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing, the Taoists have themselves produced a 30-minute Kungfu show "Wudang: Taiji Taoism."

From next July to September, the Wudang Taoists will present a total of 276 Kungfu shows, about three per day, Li said.

"It will be the first time for the Taoist culture, which advocates the idea of harmony, to appear at the World Expo. I hope through the Wudang Kungfu, we can present the world the traditional harmonious Chinese culture," he said.

"In addition to shows of unique Wudang Kungfu, we will demonstrate different ways of traditional Wudang's tactical deployment of troops," he said.

According to Shi and Li, Shaolin will dispatch 50 to 80 monks to attend the World Expo for Kungfu performances, while Wudang will send about 60 Taoists. Many of them are good at not only martial arts, but also speaking English.

When asked whether Shaolin monks and Wudang Taoists will hold a martial arts contest on stage during the Expo, Shi told Xinhua: "That needs the overall arrangement of the organizers."

While Li said: "Since the Oriental culture and the Western culture can have exchanges, so it is absolutely OK for different schools of traditional Chinese martial arts to do so."

"Let nature take its course, as we Taoists believe," he added.