Jack Ma pulls a stunt

Gong Shou Dao features some of the country's top kung fu stars and action choreographers. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Alibaba founder, also a martial arts buff, is making his debut in a 20-minute movie, which will be screened partially at a TV gala on Friday. Xu Fan reports.

One of the richest men in China, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is also a martial arts fan. And he is making his debut in Gong Shou Dao (the art of attack and defense), a 20-minute movie.

An eight-minute clip from the film will be screened at the Tmall Double 11 Night Carnival, a TV gala by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, on Friday.

The TV gala, an annual promotion event set up in 2015 by Alibaba on Nov 11－China's biggest online shopping day since 2009－will air on three satellite channels in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Zhejiang province, as well as on several video-streaming sites like Taobaolive and Youku.

Also in the film, pop diva Faye Wong, who has taken a break for a year now, teams up with Ma to sing the movie's theme song, Feng Qingyang.

Ma, 53, widely known as a fan of martial arts, is fascinated with Louis Cha's wuxia (martial arts) novels, and has been practicing tai chi for over 30 years.

He even tells employees to use fictional warriors' names from literature classics as their nicknames at work.

Thanks to Ma's love of tai chi－the 600-year-old martial art rooted from Confucianism and Taoism－Alibaba has hired five national champions to train the group's employees.

When Irish President Michael Higgins visited the headquarters of Alibaba in Hangzhou during his state visit to China in 2014, Ma arranged for four staff members to perform tai chi stunts for Higgins.