Chinese Meditation Theater showcases ancient wisdom

China 24

Chinese Meditation Theater showcases ancient wisdom

China has an ancient culture of over 5,000 years. But its influence in today’s world is limited. The government is promoting traditional Chinese culture to build the country’s soft power on the world stage. One man is doing this by creating a show with the Chinese martial art, kung fu.

“9 Scrolls” portrays the nine virtues of humanity’s spiritual struggles, like purity, devotion, love and serenity.  For our new series, “What is China?”, our reporter Han Bin takes you to a performance in central China.

The city of Louyang is steeped in thousands of years of history and is rich in lessons for building peace.

Chinese kung fu had been blackened for its superficial swaggering. Traditional Chinese culture and kung fu are not contradictory.
Our culture advocates seeking peace and harmony through compromise. There is no black without white. No matter who you are, we shake hands and forgive.

Such a balance of power is what makes Chinese culture different from others. Chinese kung fu is always an art of balance.

Yu Yang is the show’s producer and writer. He believes the key to China’s ancient culture is the practice of cultivation— the purification of the individual’s body and spirit, and the search for the meaning of life. Yu Yang had arranged many profitable commercial performances. But he felt something was missing.He hopes this show can provide a solution to most of the conflicts that we see around the world.

Traditional culture is being promoted by the top leadership. They believe the revival of culture plays a key role in realizing the Chinese dream. This Theatre of Meditation is taking this concept and telling the audience why Chinese philosophy is meaningful today.

Yu built this theater to stage “9 Scrolls”. 6,000 shows are slated over the next 15 years.

Yu Yang often finds himself like a lonely kung fu master, safeguarding the values of the past.

Though the show is highly acclaimed, few come to watch. But he’s decided to hold on.

He believes traditional culture is a sound remedy for current problems. And he hopes his journey to peace can help bring enlightenment to more people in life.