Acrobatics is a pearl in the treasure house of the traditional Chinese performing arts. Chinese acrobatics has a long and rich heritage. The acrobatic art has been existent in China for more than two thousand years. As early as the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), the rudiments of acrobatics existed. By the time of the Han Dynasty (221 BC-220 AD), the acrobatic art or "Hundred Plays" further developed both in content and variety. In the Tang Dynasty, the number of acrobats greatly increased and their performing skills improved a great deal.
Traditional Acrobatic Acts
Lion Dance
This evolved from an old folk dance in China. In the dance, there are two types of lions: big lion (played by two acrobats) and small lion (played by one man). They not only perform the various movements of the lion such as rolling and jumping but also vividly portray the lion's strength and agility as well as the quiet and playful side of the lion's character.
Traditional-Style Conjuring
This is an ancient Chinese traditional performance unique in form and style. With the help of a big robe and some pieces of cotton cloth, the conjurer brings forth many large and small glass bowls filled with water and live fish as well as a brazier with burning fire. While taking off the robe, the conjurer again produces a big glass water bowl with fish in it at the end of a somersault. The unique aspect is that the conjurer produces water and fire without wetting or burning his robe.
Wushu (Chinese Traditional Group Gymnastics)
With movements of somersault, pulling, jumping, kicking and various postures, it has become an acrobatic symbol. The agility, precision and rhythm of acrobat movements convey a sense of vigor, strength and beauty.
Chinese Opera
Chinese Operas were based on old tales of heroes and the supernatural. Today the stories often deal with heroes of the communist revolution or with great historical events of the recent past. The variety of Chinese Opera known as Beijing Opera is the most familiar in the west. It was developed in the 19th century as a synthesis of earlier provincial forms.
Beijing Opera, which is also known as Peking Opera, has existed for over 200 years. It is widely regarded as the highest expression of the Chinese culture. It is perhaps the most refined form of opera in the world. Although
it is called Beijing Opera its origins are not in Beijing but in the provinces of Anhui and Hubei. It was originally staged for the royal family and was introduced to the public later. Beijing opera was regarded to as one of the rare forms of entertainment. There are thousands of opera pieces covering the entire history and literature of China.
Gibbon with a symbolic face in Birth of the Stone Monkey, adapted from an episode in Pilgrimage to the West that tells Monkey Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, was born. Gibbon is a wise old ape. He advises Monkey Sun WuKong to learn Taoism. Monkey goes to the Kunlun Mountains and there meets a supernatural being who teaches him the 72 metamorphoses and how to somersault through the clouds. He returns and strangles the Devil King who occupied his home in the Flower and Fruit Mountain during his absence.
Roc with a green symbolic face, a monster in Lion and Camel Ridge. A guardian of the law at the Buddha's side, it sneaks away to make trouble on earth but is captured and brought back by the Buddha. Zhongli Chun with a female blue broken flower face in the Banquet on the Xiang River, adapted from Tales of Heroes and Martyrs, a historical novel. Zhongli Chun was the wife of King Xuan of Qi of the Spring And Autumn period. In the operabshe accompanies her husband to a banquet given by the King of Wei on the bank of the Xiang River. The banquet is a trap to kidnap King Xuan, but the clever Zhongli Chun foils the plot and helps her husband to escape. Han Zhongli with a red fairy face, one of the eight immortals in Eight Immortals Cross the Sea, an opera based on a Chinese fairy tale. Xiang Yu with a black cross and steel fork face, the leading character in The Prince Bids Farewell to His Favorite, adapted from an episode in Popular Romance of the Western Han. During the wars between the Chu and Han, Xiang Yu (232 - 203BC), Prince of Chu, was defeated by Liu Bang and trapped at Gaixia. In the opera the prince, hearing his enemies singing songs of Chu on all sides of Gaixia realises the game is up bids a sad farewell to his concubine, Yu Ji. The latter, after performing a sword dance to comfort him, commits suicide. The prince then fights his way through the enemy and reaches the bank of the Wu River, but feels he can go no further. Defeated and disgraced, he is too ashamed to return home, so instead of crossing the river he kills himself.
Shadow Play
Shadow Play, one of exquisite folk dramas in the East, enjoys great popularity in such countries and areas as China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Arabia and Egypt. Shadow Play of China which is usually called "the home of shadow play", with the longest history, the most charming images and the most marvellous techniques in performance, has exerted great influences on the world culture.
The Chinese shadow play, has three branches:
hand shadow play
paper shadow play
and leather shadow play.
First appeared in the Tang and Five Dynasties Period and flourished in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it has a history of more than 1,000 years. As a comprehensive folk art which blends painting, sculpture, music, singing, and performance, shadow play is an operreta for peasants which has developed side by side with full scale drama (human drama) for men of letters. It is an important component of the traditional culture of China, for it is inseparable linked to the life, custom and belief of the Chinese peasants.
European version of the Chinese shadow-puppet show, so called "ombres chinoises" (French: "Chinese shadows"), was introduced into Europe in the mid-18th century by returning travelers. It was soon adopted by French and English showmen. Using silhouettes cast by solid cardboard figures instead of the coloured transparencies popular in China, the ombres chinoises usually featured short, amusing fables. Although most shadow theatres had closed by the 1860s, ombres chinoises were played in London until the end of the 19th century. The technique was revived between 1887 and 1897 at Le Chat-Noir, a Montmartre café, by painters, writers, and musicians who presented satirical pieces.
Fengzheng
The kite, a Chinese invention, has been praised as the forerunner of the modern aeroplane. In the pavilion of aircraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Museum, Washington D. C., a plaque says, "the earliest aircraft are the kites and missiles of China".
The kite is mainly, but not only, a plaything. It has contributed to science and production. The first planes were shaped after the kite. In 1782, Benjamin Franklin, noted American scientist and statesman, studied lightning and thunder in the sky with the help of a kite and then invented
the lightning rod. Kites are still used by some fishermen to lay bait in the sea to attract fish, or by photographers to take pictures of bird's-eye view from high altitude.
The earliest Chinese kites were made of wood and called muyuan (wooden kites); they date as far back as the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) at least two millennia ago. After the invention of paper, kites began to be made of this new material called zhiyuan (paper kites).
Instead of being playthings, early kites were used for military purposes. Historical records say they were large in size; some were powerful enough to carry men up in the air to observe enemy movements, and others were used to scatter propaganda leaflets over hostile forces. According to the Records of Strange Events (Du Yi Zhi), an ancient work, when Xiao Yan, Emperor Wudi (464-549) of the Liang Dynasty, was surrounded at Taicheng, Nanjing by the rebel troops under Hou Jing, it was by means of a kite that he sent out an S.O.S. message for outside help.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), people began to fix on kites some bamboo strips which, when high in the air, would vibrate and ring in the breeze like a zheng (a stringed instrument). Since then, the popular Chinese name for the kite has become fengzheng (wind zheng). The kites made today in certain localities are fixed with silk strings or rubber bands to give out pleasant ringing in the wind.
It was also believed, for instance, during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that flying a kite and then letting it go, apart from the pleasure in itself, might send off one's bad luck and illness. Consequently it would bring bad luck if one should pick up a kite lost by other people. This may be dismissed as superstition but may not be altogether without reason: think of the good it will do to a person, ill and depressed all the time, if he or she could go out into the fields and fresh air to fly a kite.
Certain enthusiasts enjoy flying kites during the night. They hang small coloured lanterns on the line with candles burning inside, which go up high in the air to decorate the night sky with strings of glimmering lights, adding much to the fun.
