Hutong School Cultural Activities: Movie Nights and Kung Fu Lessons

Whether you take part in our Internship Program or attend our Chinese classes, Hutong School organizes cultural activities several times a week for all its students and their friends. These events are the perfect opportunity to relax with friends, have some fun, find out more about Chinese culture and also spend some time with the Hutong School community.

Our cultural activities allow our students and interns to familiarize themselves with Chinese art, food and traditions to get a better overview of what makes this culture so unique.  The range of our activities is extremely wide, from learning how to play board games like Mahjong or Weiqi to Kungfu lessons, and from acrobatic shows to cooking lessons!

Movie Nights

Every month, Hutong School organizes a movie night, showing a film about Chinese culture and tradition, followed or preceded by a small group talk about the theme of the movie. The movies range from award-winning blockbusters to smaller-scale productions, and give students and their friends the opportunity to view Chinese-related topics from a different perspective. Here are 3 of our recent Movie Night movies:

Red Sorghum (1987)

This movie, directed by the famous Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern, etc) has been highly controversial in the eyes of the government, and upon release, was heavily censored or even banned by the Communist party.

But despite the cold welcome in its own country, the movie received praise and awards at the Golden Bear Festival in Berlin in 1988. It tells the tale of a young woman forced, by her parents, into a pre-arranged marriage with a man who suffers from leprosy and works in a distillery in Shandong during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Red Sorghum provides a vivid portrayal of peasant life during the period, and is considered a groundbreaking work of Zhang Yimou, propelling him to the forefront of the fifth-generation Chinese filmmakers.

Da Nao Tian Gong – Havoc in Heaven/Uproar in Heaven (1961-1964)

This animated film relatesthe story of the Monkey King Sun Wukong, rebelling against the Jade Emperor of Heaven. The story is based on the first chapters of the famous novel “Journey to the West”, which is a perfect introduction to Chinese mythology for children. The tale of Wukong is very famous, and gives fascinating insight into all the cultural particularities of that time period, the conflicts with gods and their relations to Earth. The film’s unique animation style and background music also give a vibrant portrayal of traditional Chinese Opera.

The Shaolin Temple (1982)

The Shaolin Templewasthe first Hong Kong kung-fu movie to be shot in mainland China – using the actual location where Shaolin martial arts were born as the site for filming. A real Shaolin champion (Jet Li) plays the lead.  Training in this form of kung-fu emphasizes respectfulness and sincerity, which are key attributes of the character’s personality. The story centers on an iconic emperor painted as a mural in one hall of the Shaolin Temple. During the Tang dynasty (618-906 A.D.), 13 monks from this temple saved the emperor’s life, and when the story begins, one man (Jet Li) has just escaped death at the hands of the emperor’s cruel retainers and is seeking asylum in the temple. A kindly priest and his acolytes nurse the man back to health, and he eventually makes the difficult decision to enter the monkhood and begins training in martial arts. His motivation is not exactly saintly: he seeks revenge for the murder of his father, a motive which leads him out into the world to subdue his enemies.

We always have a lot of fun discovering new movies and exploring their different plots and themes.  In the spring and summer when the weather is warmer, we are lucky enough to be able to show the films on our rooftop terrace.

Kung Fu Lessons (gōngfu -功夫)

Another well-known part of Chinese culture is the practice of martial arts. One of the most famous is Shaolin Kungfu, which was developed by monks at the Shaolin Temple in the Song Mountain. The Shaolin monks train themselves by learning postures inspired by nature (birds, beasts, and fish). It is said to improve your health and purify your mind. Besides that, it’s also very impressive to just watch a Shaolin Kungfu show! During our Kungfu class, we learned more about the art and memorized some self-defense moves. Fortunately, the master was very patient, and understood that mastering the different moves and performing them correctly takes some time. We all felt very proud of ourselves at the end of the lesson, and felt that our strength had increased (maybe only subtly, but still!).

Luc Derouet
Marketing Assistant