The Golden Chrysanthemum Blossoms

(Acrobatics is one of the oldest of China’s performing arts. Its combination of skill, danger, humor and creativity has made it famous worldwide. Recently, the best acrobats from across China met in Beijing for the first Chinese Festival of Acrobatic Arts. The most prestigious award for China’s acrobats, “the Golden Chrysanthemum Award” was also presented at the festival. )

Dating back more than 3,000 years, acrobatics is one of the oldest forms of the performing arts in China. During the Han Dynasty, two thousand years ago, the art form matured, gradually reaching the zenith of its popularity during the Tang Dynasty. In the first half of the 20th century acrobatics was to fall into neglect, and by the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic of China had almost disappeared from Chinese popular culture. At that time, amateur acrobats could still be seen performing on the streets of major cities. But the tradition of small-scale family performances kept its popularity to a minimum.

1949 was an important year for Chinese acrobatics. It was in this year that acrobatic groups in China formed their own professional organizations. Li Wushan, deputy President of the China Acrobatics Association, tells us a bit about that period of history.

“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government helped acrobatic performers establish formal professional acrobatics troupes. The performances were moved from the streets into the theatres. Today there are more than 100 acrobatics troupes in China.”

According to Li, Chinese acrobatics has developed over the last 50 years both in scale and artistic creativity. Since China’s opening up to the outside world at the end of 1970s, acrobatic troupes have taken part in various international competitions and won more than 110 gold awards.

The far-reaching fame of Chinese acrobatics has attracted invitations for China’s acrobats to perform around the world and it’s become one of the most profitable of the performing arts for the country. Some of the more famous acrobatic troupes have signed performance contracts to last till the end of next year.

However, as most acrobatic troupes are busy signing performance contracts with foreign arts organizations, the domestic market is proving more of a problem. Li Wushan says the tradition and popularity needs to be reinvigorated among its native audiences, and this is one of the main reasons why the first China Acrobatics Festival was held this year.

“There need to be more public performances, so that people can rediscover this important part of their heritage, and appreciate how it’s developed.”

The official says there are many small acrobatics groups performing around the country, but performances are normally kept quite informal, which makes it difficult to reach their full potential and popularize acrobatics.

On the topic of the domestic market, the Dalian Acrobatics Troupe has gained a lot of experience performing for Chinese audiences and is famous within the Chinese acrobatics circle for its successful management of local performances.

In 1982, the Dalian Acrobatics Troupe became the first to go abroad to perform commercially in Australia and New Zealand. They made a sensation and since then, more and more Chinese acrobatics troupes have taken part in commercial performances abroad. The popularity of Chinese acrobatics in foreign countries is such a contrast to its neglect at home that many troupes have even decided to give up promoting it in China. But, Qi Chunsheng, Head of Dalian Acrobatics Troupe, says they look beyond the profit motive.

“Every year our troupe holds dozens of performances around the country. Though people’s living standards have risen, many are still unable to spend extra money on entertainment. But we don’t want to lose our audiences, especially in places where acrobatics is still popular. So even if there is no hope of making profit from a performance, we still perform.”

Qi Chunsheng understands the importance of the audience for the performing arts. He shows more foresight, by looking to the future and believing in a renaissance of acrobatics and the performing arts as a whole. He says as long as he and his troupe can continue to captivate audiences, there’s more chance of cornering the market.

If audiences are lured back into theatres to see acrobatic performances, what kind of performances can they expect? Chinese acrobats must keep pace with the times, and be aware of what the audience will be interested in. Li Wushan talks about how acrobatics has developed.

“We’re involved in helping acrobatics troupes create new performances or novel performing techniques. At the same time, it’s very important for us to learn from other artistic forms, and be innovative and creative.”

Li Wushan says aspects of stage art have been modernized, and lighting, music and models all play an important part in the performances now. This modern approach to acrobatics could be seen at the First China Acrobatics Festival. For example, the performance of the Shenyang Military Acrobatics Troupe is based on a famous mythological story and is divided into several plots. Each performer has their own role to play, which adds more artistic and aesthetic value to the acrobatics. It’s this experimental approach, which has roused the interest of many audiences who previously knew little about acrobatics.

It’s the support from audiences, which keeps the performing arts alive, but it’s not the only thing. All developing art needs to be acknowledged and evaluated in some way, and although today’s Chinese acrobatics is a dynamic and developing performing art, it is still failing to attract much attention of the public, and there have been relatively few comments on the part of experts and critics.

The holding of the China Acrobatics Festival, however, may be a good way of attracting more publicity. In addition, the festival also established the golden chrysanthemum award, as an authoritative and professional evaluation of the performances.

Many traditional Chinese arts have suffered the same kind of neglect over the last century, and it’s a sign of hope that acrobatics is experiencing a rebirth. But as Qi Chunsheng says: acrobatics is the most open of the performing arts, always learning from other artistic forms and assimilating new features, though never losing its own unique character. Maybe that is why the tradition of acrobatics has survived three millennia.