The Red Theater is famous for its traditional folk art performance. Especially, the Shaolin Kung Fu drama "the Legend of Kung Fu" is successfully performed there and becomes one of most popular tourism performances in Beijing.
Hundreds of heads of state, heads of government and diplomats have been here before. Some leaders of national ministries, the Beijing municipal Party committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games gave a high appraisal after watching the performance. A reporter from Canadian Sun newspaper commented: "The Legend of Kung Fu is the first wave of tsunami of Chinese cultural". The deputy ambassador of Ireland praised: "This is a more exciting performance than The Riverdance."
The story took place in an ancient monastery in the mountains. It tells the story of a young monk Chun Yi who left his mother and went to the mountain to learn Chinese martial arts. He went through many difficult tests of enlightenment, martial arts study, practice, casting and meditation. Finally he became a master through practicing martial arts and Zen. This simple and modest story implies the eternal life theme of "suffering and growth".
The Legend of Kung Fu is divided into different sections, including "enlightenment", "martial arts study", "practice casting and meditation", "face to the wall", "monastery gate", and "pass away".
This is a stage performance that combined Chinese Kung Fu with dance, music, acrobatics and other arts, showing the difficult growth process of a small monk Chun Yi. The extraordinary skills of Chinese Kung Fu, such as prancing and plunge, lying nail plate, bearing hammer, dancing with sharp spear, holding naked monks on the top are incisively and vividly showed in the story. This paints a picture of the Chinese national spirit.
Take the scene "Meditation" as an example, it puts on a play about an innocent young monk Chun Yi who had a desire for girls and paid court to the girl of his dreams cause he got into adolescence. Two actors pulled tightly and ascend into the sky slowly. The dance and acrobatics were integrated naturally and skillfully.
The Legend of Kung Fu not only shows many Chinese martial arts such as tiger Kung Fu, leopard Kung Fu, snake Kung Fu, duck Kung Fu, monkey stick, hawk Kung Fu, scorpion Kung Fu, toad Kung Fu, single whip, double whip, double hook, crescent shovel and so on.