<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">A large number of Chinese fans of Indian classical dance paid emotional tributes to Zhang Jun, China's fabled Indian classical dancer as they gathered in Beijing to watch a dazzling show of Indian classical dance performances in her memory organized at Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) auditorium on Friday. Besides hundreds of Chinese students and fans, the event was attended by India's Ambassador to China Pradeep Kumar Rawat and President of AIIB Jin Liqun, who was earlier China's Vice Minister of Finance. The audience applauded the classical dance performances by young Chinese disciples as well as highly acclaimed professionals – mostly Zhang Jun's students who dedicated their lives for Indian classical dance forms in China.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Zhang Jun (1933-2012), China's legendary dancer of Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi has inspired generations of Chinese and Indians with her relentless passion to learn and popularize Indian classical dance forms in China. The event was supported by Ministry of Culture of India and the Indian Embassy in China while the prime mover and inspiration behind this show paying tribute to Zhang was Jin Shan Shan, Zhang's devoted student and widely acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer both in India and China who devoted her life to popularize the Indian classical art form in China. Zhang Jun first visited India in the early 1950s when she got attracted towards Indian dance and art forms. Except 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 Chennai.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">She was one of the founders of The Oriental Song and Dance Assemble Ensemble, which helped the likes of Jin Shan Shan to undergo rigorous training to emerge as professionals. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1996 and passed away in 2012, plunging her students and admirers in deep sorrow. "She wanted to bring the beauty of the Indian dance to more people. I hope that she will continue to enjoy, on the other side of heaven, the joy and beauty that Indian dance has brought to her," Zhang's son Han Xiao Xia said while talking about her in a special documentary of life and times of his mother, which was screened at Friday's show.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Ambassador Rawat, who during his earlier stints in Beijing met Zhang, said she was one of the greatest teachers of Indian classical dances in China. "I always wondered what attracted her towards Indian dance forms as the attraction was very deep, almost like soul touching. To us it appeared that probably in her earlier birth she was born in India and carried that bond to this birth in China. "Her devotion to Indian art forms was complete. The energy radiated out of that devotion attracted many students even during a phase when our bilateral relations were undergoing some turbulence," Mr. Rawat said. It would be correct to say Madam Zhang Jun became a movement unto herself, he said. "As a teacher, she inspired many young Chinese and we have seen the result of her inspiration in dances presented today through one of her most celebrated disciples, Jin Shan Shan. "Her devotion to Indian art forms is so complete that even during her battle against cancer, she kept returning to teaching her students. She even asked to be cremated with an anklet," Mr. Rawat said.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Jin Shan Shan is one of China's most celebrated Indian classical dancers in Bharata Natyam and carrying forward the legacy of her gurus. Jin Shan Shan joined the Peking University's Hindi department on the advice of Zhang and later went to study in Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi where she was groomed by India's most famous Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson. Under guru Leela Samson and Madam Zhang Jun she received the most rigorous and exquisite training. In more than 30 years of performing researching and teaching, she has formed her own style, loved by the audience. A scholar of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Jin Shan Shan founded Sangeetham Indian Arts in Beijing in 2005, where she has trained many young Bharata Natyam dancers, including her own daughter Jessica Wu. Jin Shan Shan is a regular performer at the Indian Embassy events in Beijing and runs her own school of Bharatanatyam where she has trained over 100 dancers.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">India-China bilateral relations are at its lowest due to the prolonged border standoff in eastern Ladakh, however, Chinese people have shown great interest in Indian cultural events like International Day of Yoga, Indian dance and music and Indian movies. Indian Embassy in Beijing organizes two movie screenings in a month ' one dubbed in Russian with English subtitles under the banner 'cinemaSCOpe' with an audience base of SCO countries and the other "Movie Matinee' mainly for Chinese audience as these movies have Chinese and English subtitles. Both the formats are hugely popular</span></p>