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Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe : Lifestyle Editor

The Night of Chinese Kung Fu lived up to the hype when patrons who turned up at Celebration Centre on Monday night. Fortunately the weather was not too cold and an almost full house turned up for the once in lifetime privilege to see the monks from the Shaolin temple in Henan province in action. The crowd made up of diplomats, the who is who of Harare and the general public appeared to have a good time, if the repeated rounds of applause were anything to go by.The monks became a world Internet sensation earlier this year when the temple released images of the martial arts experts going through their paces on a sheer cliff side.

The Artistic Group of Boxing Shaolin Chan of Song Mountain showed that dedication and striving for perfection are a part of their culture beyond religion as they executed their moves with faultless precision.

They put up five exquisite acts whose peak came with a display of monks breaking out of the temple.

According to the commentary from the directors of ceremonies, after years of training at the monastery a monk’s graduation is completed through a break out from the temple through some serious obstacles.

What is especially amazing given the high levels of skills in fighting is that many of the monks are sworn to never harm any living thing, not even a fly and only perfect their war skills for their own well-being and to enhance their religious aspirations.

Besides the sheer brutal beauty of the martial displays there was also time for gentler amusements provided by Kaifeng Acrobatics Troupe.

Their crowning moment came with the turning discs display in which the young ladies went through various acrobatic moves while twirling rounds discs at the end of metre long rods.

Musician Cao Yongqian proved that music is a universal language that the whole world can understand with his rendition of “Horse Race” and “Brides returning to their mothers’ houses”.

Playing on an instrument that one can liken to the violin although it is totally different in shape and appearance, he took the ear and the heart through the atmosphere and emotions of each song without enunciating a single word.

One could literally see the horses gallop in the final stretch and the brides exuberant to be home then slowing down to a more restrained joy at the bitter sweet realisation that they can never truly return home.

“It is always a pleasure to attend Chinese cultural events and I will be sad to leave Harare at the end of my tour because I think this is developing into one of the most vibrant centres of Chinese culture outside China itself.

Zimbabwe should take advantage of this and engage in more cultural integration with Chinese artists.

It is clear that they take their arts seriously and consequently achieve outstanding levels of performance, a principle that would benefit any artists from anywhere in the world to adopt,” observed one diplomat .

One hopes that the Zimbabwe Wushu Association that put up a performance took some notes. Cultural and Educational Officer Dr Chuanhua Wu said that the embassy and its partners were happy with the performance,

“We are glad that the monks gave a wonderful performance and people from Zimbabwe had a chance to see them,” said Dr Wu.