Difference between revisions of "Guangxi Acrobatic Troupe"

Chinese Acrobatics

The People's Republic of China is a multi-national country, an ancient civilization with a long history and a rich and brilliant culture. Over several millennia, its peoples have created many forms of performing arts, each of them characterized by a host of schools and styles. They have followed, for centuries, a linear evolution aimed towards the extreme refinement of the skills involved in a particular art form.

Although China started contacts with non-Asian countries more than two thousand years ago, foreign influences were absorbed and rendered with a Chinese flavor for the sole benefitSpecial performance whose entire profit went to a performer; the number of benefits a performer was offered (usually one, but sometimes more for a star performer during a long engagement) was stipulated in his contract. Benefits disappeared in the early twentieth century. of that evolution. In this peculiarity lies the most important difference between Chinese and Western cultural traditions: The latter is more organic and open to new components, while the Chinese tradition aims towards the perfection of already known elements, and the integration of new elements into an existing mold.

The Chinese Acrobatic Theater followed the same development pattern. Whereas European and American circuses were in a constant search for novelties and new techniques (driven in part by commercial needs, especially in the United States), Chinese acrobats limited their repertoire (although it came to include over two hundred different specialties—which is quite a number in any respect), but they constantly improved their presentation and increased the level of difficulty of the tricks involved, always striving to reach an elusive perfection.

The Show Of One Hundred Skills

Historical records, carvings and mural paintings in tombs and grottos (such as the brick carvings discovered in the Han Dynasty tomb of Chengdu, in the Szechuan province) date the origins of Chinese Acrobatics more than two thousands years ago, during the Warring States period. They developed mostly during the Qin and Huan Dynasties (221 B.C.-230 A.D.) and reached a remarkable level of quality and refinement during the Western Huan Dynasty, evolving from a simple exhibition of skills into a performing art, with a rich and eclectic repertory including tumbling, balancing, plate spinning, pole balancing, rope dancing, etc. This acrobatic performance was known as The Show of One Hundred Skills.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government, following its policy of "Let a hundred flowers blossom and weed through the old to bring forth the new," brought about a spectacular renaissance of the Acrobatic Theater. Acrobatic troupes were created in each province and every major city, and were given their own theaters. The teaching was (and still is) done within the troupe, old performers training the new generation. These troupes experienced a serious setback during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1969), but only to see their vitality soaring afterward.

The Guangxi Acrobatic Troupe

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin. Formerly a province, Guangxi became an autonomous region in 1958. Its current capital is Nanning.

Guangxi acrobatics are a performing art with a history of over 2,000 years. Its cultural practice was inscribed on the autonomous region-level Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2023. As an intangible cultural heritage, Guangxi acrobatics, drawing on its unique geographical and cultural factors, exhibits distinct characteristics that differ from traditional acrobatics. Diverse ethnic elements and unique folk customs have jointly nurtured the distinctive aesthetic paradigm of Guangxi Acrobatics.

Guangxi Acrobatics, as a professional creative and performing activity gaining social recognition, began in the 1920s. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guangxi acrobatics has endured trials and tribulations, transitioning from private to state-owned operations, from planned to market economy, from domestic to international stages, and from tradition to innovation.

In 1978, Zhou Yunpeng and others proposed the establishment of the China Acrobats Association, which led to the creation of the Guangxi Acrobatic Troupe. In 1981, the Guangxi Acrobats Association was officially established, forming a council with Zhou Yunpeng as its chairman. It was included as a group member within the Guangxi Federation of Literary and Art Circles, ushering in a new era for Guangxi acrobatic art. The Guangxi Art School Acrobatics Major was established in 1984.

In 1985, Yang Aixia, then head of the Guangxi Acrobatic Troupe, created China's first large-scale acrobatic situational drama, Ancient-style Acrobatics. It caused a sensation in Beijing during its public performances in the capital in 1986 and toured in the United States in 1987. In 1987, the acrobatic act "Shaking Poles," created by the acrobatics class of the Guangxi Art School , won an award in the Central-South China Acrobatics Competition, and later won a Gold Medal at the 12th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow) in Paris , France, in 1989.

See Also

• Video: Twin Lotus, hand balancing/contortion act, at Circus Nikulin in Moscow (2026)