Submitted by urci on
~~As an essence and representative of Chinese traditional culture, martial arts have long been highly praised and loved by people all over the world. In May 2019, the Chinese Kung Fu & Dance Performance, which was hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina (URCI) and conducted by the Martial Arts Group of Beijing Institute of Technology, has ignited the local people’s enthusiasm for Chinese martial arts. After that, in October, with the support of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and Henan Hanban, the URCI proudly presented another Chinese martial arts performance—“Wulin Hanyun” to the city of Regina! As a highlight of the celebration activities for the "2019 Confucius Institute Day", this performance with implying culture and art in Wushu, and mixing Wushu into culture and arts, which offered an audio-visual feast of Chinese culture, which has once again ignited Regina.
The “Wulin Hanyun” cultural performance tour is a special project of Shaolin Wushu Base for the Chinese language international promotion. The performance troupe is formed by teachers and students from Songshan Shaolin Wushu Vocational Institute, Zhengzhou University, Henan University and Henan Normal University. As an innovator and successful practitioner of the Chinese martial arts, it infused classical dance and folk music with traditional Chinese Kung Fu.
From September 27th to October 10th, with the assistance of the local Confucius Institutes, the “Wulin Hanyun” troupe launched a two-week performance tour in five cities of Canada, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Quebec, to showcase Shaolin martial arts to the local public. The unique charm of the Chinese Kung Fu culture is perfectly explained through these performances.
After a long journey and intensive performances and exchanges, the performance troupe arrived at the fourth stop of the entire tour, Regina. On October 4th, the performers conducted two interactive activities to about 200 teachers and students from the local Prairie Sky Elementary School and the University of Regina. The arrival of the performance troupe caused a burst of cheers. The performers were leaping or jumping, spinning or kicking, sometimes flipping, and sometimes rolling, displaying the power and charm of the Chinese martial arts. The audience were itching to try, and the whole exchange interaction was full of laughter.
October 6, the performance was kicked off with the grandeur "Nostalgic sensation of Shaolin ". The whole performance interspersed the silky-flowing and exquisite Zen Boxing, the forceful and vigor swordplay, the elegant and graceful swordsmanship, the invincible and dazzling Eighteen kinds of Shaolin Weapons with beautiful bamboo flute, melodious Erhu, powerful lute and touching Guzheng, as well as lively and lovely Kung Fu animal performances. It combined elocnte, folk music, dance with traditional martial arts, conveying the beauty of Chinese language, the power of martial arts, the grace of folk music, and the elegance of Chinese classical dance. It is extremely interesting and enjoyable. All these brilliant programs have presented an audio-visual feast for the audience and were highly acclaimed.
On behalf of the University of Regina, the Vice-President, Kathy McNutt, congratulated on the success of this performance. Canadian terrestrial television network, one of the local television stations delivered a special report on the performance. About 500 local people shared the audio-visual feast and closely experienced the mysterious glamour of Chinese Kung Fu and the profoundness of Chinese culture.