Kung Fu Monks

Growing up, back when China was still a far away land that I knew next to nothing about, the things I did know about China were that they ate with chopsticks, ate everything and had cool monks that did Kung Fu. It turns out that these Kung Fu monks are a lot more rare than I figured, but that does not mean they do not exist.

Here in Beijing they have everything, including a theater show full of jump-kicking monks. The venue for this event was the Red Theater, a place Jenn and I saw many times during our runs through the city. The reason it is called the Red Theater is because, big surprise, it is red. Very much so, in fact. The outside of the theater is a great mess of red beams, which at night is lit in an ominous red light. Needless to say, our interest in this place was piqued even before we knew that we could witness a flurry of kung fu fighting inside.

Finally, one day we made the plan to go there, together with our good friend Kym. Turns out we were not the only ones drawn in by the lure of awesome martial art skills. The parking lot and the street outside was filled by masses of tour buses. I honestly have no idea how those buses even made their way inside the area, as they surely had to climb over other tour buses to get there.

But fighting through the masses of other tourists, we procured our tickets and found our seats. As opposed to the other shows we have seen in Beijing, this one was extremely well attended. After waiting for a few minutes the show started.

It was a good show. Guiding us through the story of Chunyi, the pure one, was an old man talking with a young lad, obviously lip syncing their English dialogue and the occasional song (the song lyrics were about lotus blossoms and general Chinese sounding things). The story told was one of strength, loyalty and overcoming temptations in order to become truly strong and powerful. During this story we saw many a man yell as he performed various kung fu moves. It was a fun thing to watch, although featuring more dance and other quiet things than one would assume from a kung fu show. All in all, it was a very nice event and an evening well spent.