In the late 1970s, Chinese and Japanese martial arts like karate, tae-kwondo and kung fu became very popular among Danish youngsters.

In 1977 I was a member of a youth club. In order to keep us off the streets, the club organized visits from various sports clubs, hoping to recruit new members.

One evening a local tae-kwondo club came by to demonstrate their skills. During the performance we were all laughing loudly -- it just looked so ridiculous, probably because the young Danish fighters performed so poorly. And maybe because it was so removed from our own culture.

That was my first exposure to martial arts -- a laugh.

It took 25 years, but I finally had my second experience in Cangxian. This time it was very different. All the participants were very dedicated to the sport and so graceful in their performance. I was left with no doubt this is a very old and integrated part of Chinese culture.

To see the children move with perfect control and elderly persons dance like they were 25 was astonishing.

There were even a small number of European participants, and although some won medals, watching them made me recall those same feelings of 25 years ago. Martial arts are definitely something you must be born into.

The author, a photographer since 1987, is visiting China Daily as part of a media exchange programme between Denmark and China organized by the Danish festival Images of Asia.

(China Daily September 12, 2003)