Chinese shows captivate audience at Afro-Chinese Arts Festival

A Chinese artist performs mask-changing dance at the opening ceremony of the 1st Afro-Chinese Arts and Folklore Festival, in Cairo, Egypt, July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese traditional arts have captivated the minds and hearts of many Egyptians and Arabs during the first Afro-Chinese Arts and Folklore Festival held in Cairo, as part of the 2016 Sino-Egyptian Culture Year.

The arts festival, which kicked off on July 21 and will last till July 26, is aimed at shedding light on the culture and heritage of all participating countries from Africa and China.

The second day of the festival solely focused on Chinese arts and folklore and therefore was dubbed "China Day."

"It is the first time seeing a live Chinese art show and I really love it... The music and the instruments are very strange to me, but I sensed the music because it is a language that everyone understands," Fatima Hakim, a Moroccan lady in her 30s living in Cairo told Xinhua.

Held at the Opera House in Cairo, "China Day" featured colorful Chinese traditional performances, including bamboo flute playing, acrobatic kung fu and others shows.

To welcome the audience, two female artists played "The Butterfly Lovers," a modern piece of Chinese music adapted from an ancient Chinese legend. The performers used the traditional Chinese string instrument the Gu Zheng, also known as the Chinese zither, which is listed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.