Boys who belly dance

Usually, it is seductive sirens who sashay to the mesmerizing moves of belly dancing. In China, however, the art takes on a very different flavor when it is the male dancers who shimmy on the floor. Cheng Anqi finds out more.

Guo Wei is a male belly dancer. Not only that, he is one of Beijing's most well-known practitioners of the Middle Eastern dance form, and he also claims the honor of being the first to turn professional. He's now 33, and he still remembers how hard it was for him when he started dancing 13 years ago. "When I first saw belly dancing on television, I became enthralled by Middle Eastern culture," says Guo, who was working as a gym coach and a dance instructor teaching hip-hop and pop.

He was so fascinated that he decided to study with the Egyptian Royal Belly Dancing College in Turkey, after which he performed in the United States and many European countries.