It's a marvellous showcase for Chinese martial arts. It is also a chic piece of modern dance.

The Legend of Kungfu, a new Chinese martial arts spectacular, is set to wow fans at the Red Theatre. Among many shows that display the art of Chinese kungfu, this one claims to be something special with added glamour and colour, featuring contemporary dance shows between the action, experimental music and melodies and eye-catching changes of stage props and lighting effects.

The core of the show features dazzling displays of Chinese martial arts in several stories. Each scene is connected by a monk named Pure, who enters the temple as a boy and grows into a mature kungfu master after many years of hard work.

To reach perfection, he gives up his naughty playfulness in childhood and manages to quench the desire for love in his youth. Instead he moulds his temperament and sharpens his skills until finally being crowned temple leader.

Performed by dozens of young martial arts talents from all over China, the production showcases a range of top skills.

They imitate certain animals in fierce fighting, including frogs, tigers and snakes, and reveal the ancient art of shadow boxing. The show also promises a number of eye-popping stunts, like smashing iron tablets over heads, and hitting people with thick wooden sticks!

Time/date: 7:30 pm, starting July 30

Location: Red Theatre, 44 Xingfu Dajie, Chongwen District

Tel: 6518-6351, 6518-6352

红剧场，崇文区幸福大街44号

Cinema

Lover Of The Last Empress

Cixi de Mimi Shenghuo (1995)

Director: Andrew Lau

Starring: Chingmy Yau, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Yu Rongguang

In 1861 she becomes a concubine among numerous others to the Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). She uses her brain and her body to become the favourite of the emperor and she bears a son.

This film tells of the rise of Cixi, the Empress Dowager, through a less than academic approach. It shows young Cixi as a naive girl who ascends to the position of empress after undergoing shock and humiliation by learning to be ruthless, murderous and conniving.

Tickets: 50 yuan (US$6), 30 yuan (US$4) with Student Card.

Time/date: 8 pm, July 30, 31

Location: Cherry Lane Movies, Gate 29, Anjialou Street, near the 21st Century Theatre

For info: www.cherrylanemovies.com.cn

樱花巷电影，安家楼路，世纪剧院东北

Roma (1972)

Director: Federico Fellini

The film explores the city of Rome from several different perspectives, giving it a mystical life of its own that hangs in the balance between its rich history and its modern identity.

With no real chronology, the film is a tapestry of bizarre scenes and familiar images (Fellini peppers the film with easily identifiable references to his earlier works) that blend together into a gorgeous visual carnival.

Typical of Fellini, with the carnival comes a critique, and the film tears through the city's political and religious history, satirizing the Catholic church and various faces of Italian government from Renaissance times through Mussolini's reign and on into the 1960s.

While the camera lavishes affectionately over Rome's art and architecture, most of the sets in the film are constructed, reinforcing Fellini's narrative imagination and keeping viewers caught in a perpetual contradiction between reality and fantasy, history and the present, fact and fiction.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Tickets: Free of charge

Time/date: 7 pm, August 5

Location: Italian Embassy, 2 Dong'erjie, Sanlitun

Tel: 6532-2187

意大利使馆，三里屯东二街2号

Stage

Drama

Thunderstorm, by the late great playwright Cao Yu, is to be staged again. It was written some 70 years ago, and made its debut in 1954. The performers are young, promising artists with Beijing People's Art Theatre.

It is a melodrama condensing all the complicated emotions and relations of love and hatred, hallucination and happiness, of people in one big rich family of different generations in old China.

Tickets: 80-280 yuan (US10-34)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, July 30, 31, August 1, 3

Location: Capital Theatre, Wangfujing Dajie

Tel: 6524-9847

首都剧场，王府井大街

Gaoshan girl

Amei Chang, one of the hottest pop singers in China's Taiwan Province has finally made it to Beijing for a gig. Of Gaoshan nationality and living in Taiwan Province, the cute singer boasts endless energy and a high-pitched voice. She also impresses the audience with some pretty hot dancing.

Tickets: 280-1,000 yuan (US$34-120)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, July 31

Location: Capital Gymnasium, Baishiqiaolu

Tel:6835-4055

工人体育场，东四十条东

Russian pianist

Born in 1968, Russian pianist Alexei Scanavi is to perform in Beijing. He is dean of the Chamber Department of the Moscow State Conservatory of Classic Music.

Scanavi began to learn to play at the age of five and graduated from the Moscow Central Conservatory of Music in 1986. He has since held solo and chamber concerts worldwide.

Programme: Liebestuaume by Liszt, Moments Musicaux in F minor by Schubert, Fantasie Impromptu, Waltz Op 64 and Polonalse Op 53, all by Chopin, Songs Without Words: Spinning Song by Mendelssohn, Prelude Op 3 by Rachmaninov, Polka Op 194 by Llyinsky, Caprice Espagnol by Moszkowski.

Tickets: 10-60 yuan (US$1-7)

Time/date: 7 pm, August 3

Location: Peking University Hall, in Peking University

Tel: 6275-1278

北大百年讲堂，北京大学内

Lighting the way

A so-called Backlighting dance will be introduced by Beijing Modern Dance Company.The leading dancer will be Ma Bo.

Tickets: 10-100 yuan (US$1-12)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, August 3

Location: Forbidden City Concert Hall, in Zhongshan Park

Tel: 6559-8285

中山音乐堂，中山公园内

Heavenly voices

Beijing Mulan Children's Chorus is gearing up for a concert conducted by Ni Danxia.

Programme: The Trout, Snow on Rivers, Jasmine Flower, Great Sea, My Homeland, Eight Little Geese and more.

Tickets: 10-100 yuan (US$1-12)

Time/date: 2 pm, August 7

Location: Forbidden City Concert Hall, in Zhongshan Park (中山音乐堂)

Tel: 6559-8285

A life in art

An Artist's Life by Puccini is to be staged by vocal musicians from China National Opera House.

Tickets: 10-100 yuan (US$1-12)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, August 8

Location: Forbidden City Concert Hall, in Zhongshan Park (中山音乐堂)

Tel: 6559-8285

Swanning puppets

China Puppet Art Theatre is to feature The Swan Lake in the form of puppet art.

To cater to children's tastes, the story line is a little different. Odette, the princess, has turned out this time a guardian of the forest. The evil eagle turns into an ambitious creature who wants to govern the whole forest. Through his witchy ways, he turns the princess into a white swan.

Tickets: 40-280 yuan (US$5-34)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, August 11-15

Location: Poly Theatre (保利剧院)

Tel: 6506-6345

Gala time

The Sixth Asian Arts Festival is to be launched on August 20 in Beijing and Jilin Province.

This festival, the largest of its kind, has been staged since 1998. Some 19 art troupes from 17 countries in Asia are to tour Beijing and cities in Jilin Province, displaying traditional and modern works from their own countries, as well as communicating and exchanging artistic skills and ideas with their Chinese counterparts.

These troupes include Ballet Philippines from the Philippines, a martial art troupe from India, national song and dance ensembles of Bangladesh(right), Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and the Chorus of the Indonesian National Symphony Orchestra.

Tel: 8528-2222

Commemorating Deng

A commemorative concert marks the 100th anniversary of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's birth.

Via symphonic music, vocal soloing and chorus singing, musicians will praise the man who opened up China to the world 25 years ago.

Tickets: 80-880 yuan (US$10-106)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, August 6

Location: Poly Theatre, Dongsi Shitiao

Tel: 6506-5345, 6506-5343

保利剧院，东四十条路口

The Hwaum Chamber Orchestra from South Korea is poised for a tour of China.

Hwaum in the Korean language implies the harmony of music with visual arts. "It also means music that could outline human souls," said Park Sang Yeon, president of the troupe.

Founded in 1996 in Seoul, it has grown into a top troupe of chamber orchestras in South Korea, focusing more on highlighting modern, experimental pieces of music.

Made up of 19 top musicians, the troupe prefers to work without a conductor, instead setting four master musicians, of violin, viola, cello and bass, to take that role: "We believe that in this way, players can realize more of their artistic ideas instead of merely obeying the conductor's orders," Park explained.

To create new age Asian music, the troupe finds new ways to illustrate music. One such method is to perform new music once a month at exhibitions in art museums in Seoul.

Most of its players are graduates from top conservatories around the world. Many are now professors in conservatories in the United States, Germany and other countries.

In the so-called Serenade in Midsummer concert, it will play romantic works most people are familiar with. "It is a pity that we can not also present more modern, experimental music works we are strong on," admitted Park. He said the troupe hopes to feature new, challenging pieces later.

Programme: Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, Serenade No 13 in G Major by Mozart, Rossini's Cello and Bass Violins Fantasy by Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), a South Korean string piece, and String Serenade in E Major, Op 22 by Dvorak. The planned encore is A Beautiful Night, a Chinese piece by the late Chinese composer Liu Tianhua.

Tickets: 80-380 yuan (US$10-46)

Time/date: 7:30 pm, August 14

Location: Century Theatre, 40 Liangmaqiaolu

Tel: 6465-6904, 6465-6914

Social portraits

The CourtYard Gallery is presenting seven of artist Qiu Zhijie's ongoing pet projects, Social Portraits.

Qiu, who splits his time between art production, teaching and writing, has distinguished himself as a prominent figure in Chinese and international art circles to create new works which chronicle seemingly random phenomena observed around China. Often the things which catch Qiu's eye go unnoticed by many people.

Armed with a digital camera and a laptop computer, Qiu has returned from two years of travelling Asia, first the route of the Long March and later on a Pan-Asian documentary tour, with an archive of visual culture which includes a photo meditation on Mao's calligraphy and other figures of contemporary Chinese life.

Time/date: 10 am-6 pm until August 28

Location: 95 Donghuamen Dajie

Telephone: 6526-8882

东华门大街95号

Greek as a treat

A large-scale exhibition featuring the glamorous history of ancient Greece will start at China National Museum on July 22.

A total of 120 precious Greek antiques worth some 200 million yuan (US$24.4 million) will be displayed at the exhibition which illustrates a 7,000-year timespan. The exhibits, collected from 37 museums in Greece, include pottery sculptures, bronze items, marble sculptures and pottery paintings centering on the topic of men and gods. They help to reveal the ancient Greek conception about humans and their position in the universe.

Time/date: 9 am-4:30 pm until August 31

Location: east side of Tian'anmen Square

Tel: 6512-8321

国家博物馆

Out of Africa

A major African art exhibition featuring the Congo is underway at the National Museum of China.

Entitled Congo Kingdom Edge, the exhibition includes more than 300 historic relics from the collections of 15 museums and collectors around the world. In addition to the relics, it also features Western works of art in different African styles by important artists, including Paul Gaugiun (1848-1903) of France. Modern works by African artists from the Congo Basin bring a contemporary edge to the event.

Time/date: 9 am-4:30 pm until October 9

Location: east side of Tian'anmen Square

Tel: 6512-8321

国家博物馆

Young girl's world

An oil painting exhibition by nine-year-old Yang Chunbaixue will begin at the Qin Gallery on August 12.

The gifted young girl first picked up a painting brush at the age of one and started winning prizes from the next year on. The oil paintings are characterized by a magnificent, fluid style and wide use of strong colours. The ordinary scenes in her life are charted in her painting.There's a strong feeling of music and the happy world of a little girl. Some paper-cuts and prints made by Yang will also be displayed.

Time/date: 9:30 am-7 pm, August 12-31

Location: 1-1E Huaweili, north of Beijing Curio City

Tel: 8779-0461

华威里1-1E,北京古玩城北

Special sight

A total of 50 oil paintings by artist Xiao Fangkai from Jiangxi Province will be showcased at the New Millennium Art Gallery on August 2.

The exhibited oil paintings are hued with a strong nostalgic mood as the artist pays great attention to depicting his affection for his homeland through portraits of history which impress people in a way not normally seen in today's cities.

Time/date: 9 am-6 pm, August 2-30

Location: Diyang Building, 2 Dongsanhuan Beilu

Tel: 8453-6193

迪阳大厦，东三环北路2号

The colour of ink

The way in which some Chinese painters have tried to break away from traditional wash-and-ink techniques to create more usage of colour is reflected at an ongoing art exhibition at the Creation Gallery.

Eight artists demonstrate their ideas with works combining traditional Chinese paintings skills and modern Western characteristics. The exhibits are free-style wash images of typical Chinese scenes and figures given a modern twist.

Time/date: 10 am-7 pm until August 8

Location: north end of Ritan Lu

Tel: 8561-7570

日坛路北端

Canine caper

Approved by the Chinese National Kennel Club (CNKC), the first national kennel exhibition will be held on October 5 and 6 in Beijing.

Dogs have long been a close friend to human beings and raising pets has spurred a prosperous industry worldwide.

Apart from displaying the dog-related goods and services, the exhibition will include a dog competition in accordance with international standards, a dog demonstration and games. A special make-up competition for dogs will also be held during the exhibition. For further information, please contact 6591-1643.

(Business Weekly 07/30/2004 page8)