Dancer dazzles with Arabian passion

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-23 11:07

Dancer dazzles with Arabian passion
Imen Belhadj rehearses for Sunday's cultural festival in Peking University. [Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

When Imen Belhadj was a little girl, she often heard the Arabian idiom that China is a "cradle of wisdom". But the Tunisian will show off some of her own nation's delights in Beijing on Sunday.

The 29-year-old PhD student has joined around 3,000 international Peking University students in preparing an educational feast for the college's month-long sixth International Cultural Festival, which started on Sept 17.

Belhadj, the only Tunisian enrolled at the university, is staging an exhibition covering 3,000 years of Tunis history that involves photographs, costumes and traditional dancing.

"The cultural festival isn't only about students at Peking University. It's a huge party for many foreigners in Beijing," she said. "I am thrilled that I make a humble contribution to this."

Dancer dazzles with Arabian passion

And she wants people to have a better idea about her country.

"When people heard me from Tunisia, they often ask me why I am not black. I really want Chinese to know countries in North Africa are Arab countries. Most of the people are not black," she said.

She told METRO the highlight of the entire festival would be African dancing during the grand finale on Sunday.

"There is a pulse between China and North Africa, with economic and cultural exchanges and communications increasing significantly in recent years," said the International Relations major, who plans to stay on at the college after her PhD to further study Sino-North African relations.

"But I rarely hear of anyone doing research on relations between the two regions. I am here to fill the gap."

Li Yun, one of the festival organizers, said ambassadors from North African countries including Algeria and Morocco would attend the event.

Belhadj has taken part in the previous five festivals, and this year has helped Africans from across her native continent set up exhibitions as well as help them with translation and planning.

The dedicated woman has studied in Beijing since 2005 and is proficient in not only the Chinese language but also Chinese opera and calligraphy.

"I love every element of Chinese culture, especially calligraphy. It's like drawing a very special form of Chinese art," she said.

Themed on language and culture, students from more than 57 countries have participated in the festival, with major activities including a Chinese-speaking competition, basketball and Romanian dance performances.

Chinese language expert Professor Lu Jianming, who teaches modern Chinese at Peking University, said the event is the best platform for Chinese and overseas students to communicate and enhance mutual cultural understanding.