News.Xinhuanet.com (China)-Chinese Hip Hop Dancer Is A Star in Xinjiang

Hip Hop Dancer in Lhasa, Tibet: Xinhua/Gesang Dewa

(Story reported by Xinhua writer Li Huizi for News.Xinhuanet.com)

URUMQI, July 23 (Xinhua) -- He could have been a lawyer, but for this young Uyghur man, the lure of the dancefloor and a hip-hop beat proved more powerful than the promise of a steady income behind a desk.

Purcat, 30, grew up in Urumqi, capital of China's far west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where Islamic traditions mingled with a culture steeped in its own unique dance and music traditions.

In this environment as a high school student, he became an unlikely street dance aficionado after watching a dance video brought from Japan by his university professor father.

"The movement is fast and the music rocks. I couldn't help loving it," says Purcat.

"The hip-hop culture was still strange to most Chinese in the 1990s, especially for those living in underdeveloped areas like Xinjiang. People, including my parents, didn't think hip-hop was a good thing at that time."

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