Kicking it with Yushu's yak-herding b-boys

[Photo by Erik Nilsson / China Daily]

Locals cite a Tibetan saying: "If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance."

"I love to dance with my friends. But it makes me tired," 14-year-old Rongzhongja says, panting after practicing with friends during recess.

His former classmate, 17-year-old Renzembdorlgyee, has since joined the bigger group of b-boys who dance at Qumalai county seat's middle school.

"It's a special type of dance," Renzembdorlgyee says.

"It's great exercise, more so than other ways of dancing."

Puqu agrees break dancing is healthy fun. But he believes it's much more.

School performances for typically illiterate parents with little knowledge about the outside world naturally feature the dance genre, to herders' delight and surprise.

Parents are impressed by their kids' moves and stunned that such complicated choreography hails from cultures they don't know.

"Other people love it when we dance like this," Puqu says.

"It helps us spread joy."