Chinese martial art performs at UN

A Chinese martial art (wushu) show starred dozens of world champions and Olympic medalists performed at the UN headquarters in New York Thursday night. The performance, with the theme of "peace, friendship and health," was jointly sponsored Chinese Wushu Association and the Permanent Mission of China to the UN. Wang Min, deputy permanent representative of the Chinese Mission to the UN, said at the opening of the performance that martial art embodies the peace-loving Chinese culture. "The ultimate goal of martial art is to stop violence, end conflict, and foster peace and harmony. This concept coincides with the ideal of peace advocated by the United Nations," he said. Beside, martial art is meant to improve people's health, said Wang. "This dovetails nicely with the UN millennium development goal of promoting health of mankind." Some 1,600 people from diplomatic missions, the UN and other circles watched the performance at the General Assembly Hall, including UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro and well-known Chinese martial artist Jet Li (Li Lianjie). In a two-hour performance, more than 20 wushu champions from China and 70 local wushu-lovers showed various styles of wushu with different training weapons like sabre, sword, spear and others. The splendid performance won continuous applauses from the audience. "It was just amazing, from the start to finish, "said UN staff member Fabris Wowo. Wowo, who has been learning Chinese for two years, told Xinhua that the show prompted his interest in taking Wushu, in a bid to further understand the profound Chinese culture. Originated in China, wushu has been referred to as martial arts, "guoshu", as well as "gongfu" in some areas. It has a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China.