The Alibaba founder, also a martial arts buff, appears in a 20-minute clip to coincide with mega shopping event

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

An eight-minute clip from the film was screened at the Tmall Double 11 Night Carnival, a TV gala by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, on Nov 10.

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

On this year's Singles Day on Nov 11, Alibaba's platforms tallied total sales of 168.2 billion yuan (21.7 billion euros, ￡19.3 billion), up 39.3 percent from last year.

Also in the film, pop diva Faye Wong, who has taken a break for a year now, teamed 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 400-year-old martial art rooted in 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 for him.

The movie had three top Hong Kong action choreographers: Yuen Wooping from The Matrix and Kill Bill franchises; Sammo Hung, famous for the Ip Man movies; and Ching Siutung, known for Swordsman.

The cast includes top action stars such as Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing and Tony Jaa from Thailand, as well as A-list actors like Huang Xiaoming, Tong Dawei and Li Chen.

Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming and retired Mongolian sumo champion Asashoryu Akinori also are featured in the film.

Ma was inspired to make the movie in 2009 when he met Li, the Chinese kung fu giant who is known for Zhang Yimou's Hero.

They then co-founded a company to promote tai chi in 2011 and decided to make a film to realize their goal.

For the film, a number of scripts were sent to Ma, but he finally plumped for a tale penned by actor-turned-director Wen Zhang, who shot to fame with the 2007 hit TV series Struggle.

In the movie, Ma plays a master of tai chi, while Li plays a Buddhist monk. Speaking about the movie and its impact on the Alibaba founder, a source close to Ma says: "Ma has a young heart. He loves art and culture. And martial arts has played an important role in shaping him."

Separately, the publicity division of Alibaba says the complete version of Gong Shou Dao will be streamed on Youku, the online video provider affiliated with Alibaba, in addition to being screened in movie theaters.

As for the cinema screenings, an Alibaba statement says: "As the movie aims to popularize and spread Chinese culture, the theater screenings will not have tickets. Instead, people will be invited to watch the film for free."

Giving details of Ma's commitment to the film, Li says the tycoon spent 12 hours each day for 12 days on the project. During this time, Ma only excused himself once, for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's visit to the Alibaba headquarters in September.

"I appreciate Ma for devoting his time to the film and also providing a wonderful platform (the Double 11 gala) to demonstrate Chinese martial arts to the world," says Li.

Last year, up to 200 million viewers, domestic and foreign, watched the gala, with Alibaba's online sales reaching 120.7 billion yuan on Nov 11.As for the movie critics, most of them see the short movie as more of a promotional stunt for the Double 11 shopping day.

Jiang Yong, a Beijing-based critic, says that a 20-minute film is too short to evaluate, and the release date made it more like a marketing ploy for Double 11.

But Fei Yuliang, the vice-president of the Netherlands-based International Health Qigong Association, says the movie can help raise the profile of martial arts in the West, thanks to Ma's reputation and the cast's star power.

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(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/17/2017 page20)