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Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, August 28 (Reporter Chen Cong) Kenyan acrobat Mathias Kavita studied acrobatics in China more than 40 years ago. When he learned that he would perform in China for the second time, he was very excited.
The 53-year-old, along with 22 other acrobatics students from Kenya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Eritrea, is taking part in a two-month course in Wuqiao county in northern China, known as the cradle of Chinese acrobatics. The course, funded by the Chinese government, started in late July.
“I have missed China for 40 years and I am very happy to have the opportunity to study acrobatics in Wuqiao county again,” Kavita told Xinhua in a recent interview at the Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School in Hebei province.
In 1983, Kavita and 23 other Kenyan students came to the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe base in southern China’s Guangdong Province and studied acrobatics for two years with funding from the Chinese government.
Kavita then returned to Kenya to work as an acrobat and established an acrobatic workshop in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, in the mid-1990s. The workshop is still in operation today and has trained more than 1,000 people to date.
Although Kavita initially visited China as a student, he has returned to assist Chinese instructors in teaching acrobatics to the program’s African students.
Since Kavita can speak Chinese, he helps students better understand and grasp the learning points taught by the Chinese teachers.
Many children in Kenya were inspired by Kavita and spent years learning acrobatics from him. When he had the opportunity to perform, he often took these children with him so that they could also earn money.
Eric Kimuyu, 26, started learning acrobatics from Kavita about 10 years ago. “Acrobatics taught me self-discipline and helped me make more friends. Practicing with friends and drawing inspiration from them may help me in the future,” Kimuyu said at the Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School in Hebei Province.
“I believe the skills I have learned here will help me get opportunities to perform on the global stage in the future,” said Judah Patrick, another student from Kavita, after excitedly showing off her newly acquired skills.
“In Africa, we usually only do body balance training, but after training in China, I gained more ideas and experience. I am very happy and grateful for the opportunity to come to China,” said Patrick.
The history of Wuqiao Acrobatics can be traced back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), more than 2,000 years ago. In 2006, Wuqiao Acrobatics was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.
Kavita and many other young Africans continue to pass on Chinese acrobatic skills in Africa, and they have become grassroots messengers of cultural exchanges between China and Africa.
Kavita was very excited when talking about his fate with China. He said he hoped that this friendship could be passed down from generation to generation and that the acrobatics project could continue to bring about earth-shaking changes in the motherland.
“I have benefited from China’s opening-up and modernization since I was a child,” said Kavita. He is paying close attention to the upcoming 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit and hopes that the summit will achieve more fruitful results.
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