Haka performers from Angitu and Te Iti Kahurangi are in Shanghai representing Te Matatini and Aotearoa at the Chinese Tourism Festival. They had been scheduled to perform in the weekend but their performances were cancelled due to the approaching typhoon.
Shanghai halted transportation links, recalled ships and shut tourism spots including Shanghai Disney Resort on Sunday as it braced for Typhoon Bebinca, in what could be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Chinese financial hub since 1949.
Angitū performer and Whakaata Māori kaiurungi Blake Ihimaera, who is with the travelling group, says that while the kaihaka are in good spirits, they’re on tenterhooks bracing for full impact.
“E noho here ana mātou i ngā hōtera. Kei te pai te wairua, engari i tō mātou kitenga atu i te anipā o te hunga noho ki konei, e tika ana me mataara hoki mātou.”
“We’ve been told to stay in our accommodation and not to leave. Spirits are high but to see the concern on locals’ faces, we’re also very aware of the impact the typhoon has,” she says.
State media are reporting that Bebinca, packing top wind speeds of 151 kph (94 mph) near its eye, has landed in the city of nearly 25 million, the strongest storm to strike Shanghai since Typhoon Gloria in 1949.
According to reports from RNZ, the Category 1 typhoon, packing maximum sustained wind speeds near its centre of around 144 kilometres per hour was about 500km southeast of Shanghai as of 1pm local time (5pm NZT). It was expected to make landfall along China’s eastern coast after midnight on Monday.
The strongest storm to make landfall in Shanghai in recent decades was Typhoon Gloria in 1949, which tore through the city with gusts of 144km/h. Shanghai was last threatened by a direct hit in 2022 by the powerful Typhoon Muifa, which instead landed 300km away in the city of Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province.
