Chinese fans pay rich tributes to China’s legendary Indian classical dancer Zhang Jun

The first Chinese to study classical dance in India, Zhang Jun had passed away in 2012

The India-China frictions took a backseat for a while in Beijing as a large number of Chinese flocked to a scintillating show of Indian classical dance performances to pay emotional tribute to Zhang Jun, China’s legendary dancer of Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi.

Tired of COVID lockdowns and other restrictions in Beijing, over 300 Chinese fans of Zhang thronged the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) auditorium on Friday night to watch sterling performances from young Chinese children as well as highly talented professionals who devoted their lives practicing and performing Indian classical dance forms in this country.

It was a dream come true for Jin Shan Shan, Zhang’s ardent student and widely acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer both in India and China who took to her Guru’s footsteps and devoted her life in popularising the Indian classical art form.

The audience included India’s Ambassador to China Pradeep Kumar Rawat and former Vice Minister of Finance of China and President of AIIB Jin Liqun who lustily cheered the meticulously performed dances to the classical Tamil and Hindi music.

Zhang Jun (1933-2012) has inspired generations of Chinese and Indians with her relentless passion to learn Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi and make them popular in China.

Encouraged by the then Chinese premier Zhu Enlai at the height of India-China bonhomie, she first visited India in the early 1950s during which she was captivated by the Indian dance and art forms.

Barring Mao Zedong’s disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966-76) during which millions of intellectuals were persecuted, she travelled to India seven more times mastering the dance forms studying under maestros like Birju Maharaj, Uday Shankar and later at the Kalakshetra, a revered institution of Bharatanatyam in then Madras, now Chennai.