On the occasion of opening the Year of Exchanges between the Peoples of China and Korea, the Chinese Artists Delegation and the Chinese Shaolin (a monastery in China, well-known for its martial arts) Martial Arts Performance Troupe organized and sent by the Ministry of Culture give a special performance in the National Central Theater in Seoul, Korea and the Jangchung Gym respectively. The two different kinds of Chinese Culture are both enthusiastically received by the audience in Seoul.

The Chinese Artists Delegation consists of the artists from Beijing and Shanghai. A group of eight artists, Li Xincao,Liao Changyong, Song Fei, Song Xuewei, Yang Jing, Wu Bixia, Chen Xiaoqun and Zhang Wei, forms a not large but very strong cast. At the concert, the experienced and knowledgeable audience in Seoul have a feeling of superb artistic skill, particularly Song Fei's erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument) solo A Paean to Red Plum Blossoms and Liao Changyong's My Motherland and Me and Make Way for the Busiest Man in the City at Once. Their performances make the audience in Seoul feel uneasy whether to sit or to stand. They applaud wave upon wave, urging Song Fei and Liao Changyong to encore again and again. Their performances are accompanied by the KBS Orchestra of Korea and conducted by Li Xincao. Due to the fact that the time for their rehearsal was so short that they only had enough time to rehearse all the perfromance programs but not enough to prepare for the encore programs. As a result, the audiences in Seoul have to bid farewell to the artists with some regret.

The performance given by the Chinese Shaolin Martial Arts Performance Troupe in the Jangchung Gym begins at 4 o'clock p.m. on March 31st. The audience's surprise in Seoul makes the atmosphere in the Gym very lively. The genuine accomplishments of the players make numerous students and children in Seoul burst with joy. The Shaolin Martial Arts Performance Troupe will then follow the Cultural Delegation of the Chinese Government headed by Sun Jiazheng, Minister of the Cultural Ministry, to Japan to join in the related activities Year of Sino-Japanese Culture activities. The awe-inspiring bearing of Shaolin Martial Arts becomes a special scenic line in foreign countries.

The brilliant performance and astonishing martial arts of the two art troupes are a successful beginning of the Year of Exchanges between the Peoples of China and Korea.

(From Cultural Newspaper of China)