The First Chinese Kung Fu Film Week Opens in Copenhagen Using film to bring Chinese cinema and culture into the Nordic region
Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng and Commercial Counsellor Yang Junping attended the opening, together with several Copenhagen city council members, the director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Copenhagen, a cultural officer from the Moroccan Embassy in Denmark, and a representative from the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Guests from across Denmark’s political, diplomatic, cultural and film communities gathered alongside members of the local Chinese community to mark the occasion.
Running from 18 to 22 September in Copenhagen, the festival presents seven Chinese films. Taking kung fu as its cultural entry point, the programme brings together classic and contemporary titles to trace the development of Chinese martial arts cinema and the evolving language of Chinese film more broadly.
The line-up includes I Am What I Am 2, Blades of the Guardians, Stuntman, The Shaolin Temple, The Way of the Dragon, Ip Man 4: The Finale and Camel Rider 2: An Flying Arrow. Spanning several decades and genres, the selection offers Danish audiences multiple perspectives on how Chinese kung fu cinema has evolved from traditional martial arts storytelling into contemporary genre filmmaking.
The opening night on 19 September drew guests and audiences from Denmark, China and several other countries. A live kung fu performance brought the martial arts culture usually seen on screen into the room itself, giving local audiences a more immersive encounter with Chinese culture.
The festival is hosted at Grand Teatret, one of central Copenhagen’s landmark art-house cinemas. All films are screened with English subtitles and open to both Danish and international audiences, creating a new setting for Chinese cinema to meet local audiences directly, inside Nordic theatres.
The festival is co-organised by the Danish-Chinese Association for Film and Culture (DKFFK) and the Southern Film Culture Foundation, with support from China Movie Channel and other partners. As a non-profit association working to bring Chinese cinema to Denmark, DKFFK has spent recent years organising screenings and cultural exchange around Chinese film, with the aim of building a steady, long-term theatrical presence for outstanding Chinese films in local cinemas and everyday cultural life.
“We hope this festival isn’t a one-off, but the start of something ongoing,” said Zhao Xuan (Amanda), Chair of DKFFK. “Film crosses language barriers more easily than almost any other medium. We want Chinese films to do more than visit Europe for a single event — we want them in local cinemas, where audiences from different backgrounds can sit down, watch the same film, and start to understand one another.”
The first Chinese Kung Fu Film Week marks a new connection between Chinese cinema and Nordic audiences. Looking ahead, the organisers plan to keep working toward regular screenings of outstanding Chinese films across Denmark and the wider Nordic region, and to deepen exchange and collaboration between Chinese and Danish filmmakers — building film into a lasting cultural bridge between China and the Nordics.
