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Show tells of Genghis Khan
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Wu Yan
CHINA Folk Culture Villages is well known for its colourful presentation of China's ethnic minority groups. To keep its presentation always new and intriguing to tourists, the park has constantly created new shows in recent years.
For the upcoming Spring Festival, preparation of several events is under way. Among them, the most striking is a large-scale outdoor performance called The Hero-Genghis Khan.
The site is the 20,000 square-metre space that was originally a grass ski ground. To the south, there is part of a narrow strait, and the buildings on the Hong Kong side are visible across the sea. One hundred horses and hundreds of human performers participate in the show, with gunfire and explosions and lifelike fight at close quarters incorporated.
The show is actually a story of Genghis Khan. It begins with a scene of the Mongol steppe in the early 12th century when different tribes fought one another for predominance. Against this background Genghis Khan was born. When he was nine, his father, a minor chieftain, was poisoned to death by the members of a rival tribe, leaving his family led by his mother as outcasts. Taught by his mother and brothers, young Genghis Khan learned to ride a horse and the ways of the world.
As he grew up, Genghis Khan was extraordinarily strong and brave. And with exceptional wisdom, he became a “player" in the rough-and-tumble world of the steppe. Indeed, the Mongols and several neighbouring tribes hailed him as their khan, or leader. His daringness and charisma drew followers from throughout the region, and he conquered tribe after tribe — and all but exterminated the Tatars, who killed his father.
At a great assembly, Temujin (the original name of Genghis Khan) was lauded as Genghis Khan, the “oceanic ruler". At about the age of 40, he became master of all the tribes in what is now Mongolia, an expanse about the size of Alaska. He set to work fusing them into a single people — building an army, imposing uniform laws and establishing a written language.
For his initial foray beyond Mongolia, Genghis Khan pressed southward some 965 kilometres. As he and his hardened troops crossed the Gobi Desert, they survived by drinking milk and blood from their horses. They attacked Xi Xia, a kingdom of some five million subjects, and handily defeated its disorganized army. Xi Xia became a Mongol vassal. Then he beat the Jin Dynasty and occupied what is now Beijing.
Then he continued to press westward, conquering a series of kingdoms. After his death in 1227, his descendants pressed farther — reaching the Volga, clutching the Black Sea in their embrace.
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