4:00 pm - By JOSIE CLARKE
Indian dancers, Chinese drummers and Japanese street music turned central Auckland into a bustling Asian market today.
Artists from throughout Asia have converged on Aotea Square and Elliott St for the Festival of Asia 2001 giving weekend shoppers a dose of traditional performance.
One crowd-pleaser was the Royal Chhau Mask Dance Troupe, a group of boys who were taught the classical dance in a Bengal orphanage.
The group have toured Germany, France and Italy.
The Chhau began as a martial dance performed around soldiers' barracks just before or just after battle in Rarh, an ancient kingdom situated mainly within west Bengal, Orissa and Bihar.
The dance still includes plenty of martial arts moves and is traditionally performed during the Bengali New Year festival.
Also in Auckland was Liang Jun, a 67-year-old Chinese windmill and kite-maker from Beijing, who said his family had been making the toys for generations.
Stall-holders sold a variety of Asian foods while a band dressed in vibrant costumes played Chin-don, or Japanese street music.
More than 120 drummers, dancers, musicians, crafts people and puppeteers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are in New Zealand for the third festival which is held biennially and is aimed at bringing the New Zealand and Asian cultures closer.
Asia 2000 Foundation executive director Tim Groser said the festival provided a unique opportunity for New Zealanders to see international Asian arts and performance
"Almost six per cent of New Zealanders identify themselves as of Asian ethnic origin and in Auckland, the figure is almost double that," Mr Groser said.
This year, the festival is also catering for the business community with a series of half-day seminars on doing business in Korea.
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