Photo: Sina Weibo

A video filming Chinese students dancing during a break from classes has gone viral on the internet on Wednesday. The dance imitated moves from wall paintings of the Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province. Many netizens were impressed by students' graceful moves which vividly imitated a goddess from China's ancient mythology. 

"The whole activity is produced by teachers of our school, and it is designed based on the wall paintings of the Mogao Grottoes," said a teacher surnamed Huang. The Mogao Grottoes, also known as "Thousand Buddha Cave," is located at the western end of the Hexi Corridor and can be traced back as early as 366 BC. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Photo: Sina Weibo

These students come from Dunhuang Middle School, which is located in the city of Jiuquan in Northeast China's Gansu Province. According to Huang, the dancing is warmly welcomed by both students and their parents, who expressed that the dance helps protect and promote Chinese traditional culture.

The video became a trending topic on China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo and was viewed 50.84 million times on the platform. 

"The dancing looks great. It seems that students change their temperament when they are dancing. I want to try," a netizen said. 

Many netizens said this dance can promote traditional Chinese culture, while others worried that it may have wasted quite a lot of energy and time to produce, and potentially occupied time best for studying.

Global Times