Wuqiao circus festival helps keep old art alive with fresh ideas
Wang Yang grew up with watching acrobatic performances and his favorite activity as a kid was doing handstands and turning somersaults.
“I can still remember that I competed with my friends to turn 100 somersaults one after another, and that I practiced at home every day so I would win,” says Wang, who was born and grew up in Wuqiao county, Hebei province, which is considered to be the birthplace of Chinese acrobatics.
At 10, Wang entered Hebei Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School, with the aim of becoming a professional acrobat. Decades later, Wang, now 40, is a teacher at the school, which was founded in 1985.
He just took his students, aged from 12 to 17 years old, to compete in the 10th China Acrobatics Golden Chrysanthemum Awards, the highest award for acrobatics in the country.
Their performance, titled Chinese Kung Fu, will also compete in the 16th China Wuqiao International Circus Festival, which is running in Cangzhou and Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, through Oct 8. Thirty-one troupes from 18 countries are taking part in the festival.
“This is the first time that I participated in a national competition and I was very nervous,” says 14-year-old Xue Shang, who started learning acrobatics at Hebei Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School five years ago.
“We turn hundreds of somall ersaults every day. I spent two months working on my balance in the air while turning somersaults,” says 15-year-old Yan Xiangyu, who, like Xue, is also a student at the acrobatic art school.
“We practiced 10 hours a day for the 8-minute performance and all the 15 students, male, had no competition experience,” says Wang, who led his students to win the golden award at last year’s China Wuqiao International Circus Festival with a performance of unicycling.
“The students are so well trained that they can express a lot onstage. Unlike my generation of acrobats, who focused on technique, the young people take acrobatics as a combined art form. Besides their acrobatic skills, they have developed a large vocabulary to express themselves. Creativity is keeping this old art alive.”
Since its birth in 1987, China Wuqiao International Circus Festival has staged over 600 performances by acrobats from more than 50 countries.
“Most of the 31 programs have won international awards, which will make the festival a high-level one,” says Bian Faji, the president of China Acrobats Association.
This year, the festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary, with performances, forums, photo exhibitions and film screenings.
“We’ve experienced a tremendous transition from being an unknown festival to an international event during the past 30 years,” says Bian.
According to Liang Yinghua, the deputy mayor of Cangzhou city, there are four acrobatics schools in the city and the yearly revenue generated from the acrobatics industry was about 200 million yuan ($31 million) in 2016, an increase of 6 percent from 2015. About 1.5 million tourists came to Cangzhou thanks to the reputation of acrobatics history in the city.
Besides drawing international troupes to compete and perform in Wuqiao, acrobatics schools in Wuqiao also train acrobats from around the world.
More than 400 foreign students, including those from the United States, Mexico and Ethiopia, have learned acrobatic skills in the Hebei Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School since 2002, says Qi Zhiyi, vice-president of Hebei Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School.
Earlier this year, Qi also led a team of teachers from the school along the ancient Silk Road, such as Laos and Egypt, seeking cooperation opportunities to launch more cultural exchange programs.