What are the major characteristics of Chinese acrobatics?

Chinese acrobatics can be summarized as nine characteristics.

The first characteristic of Chinese acrobatics is that it attaches special importance to the training of waist and leg top work. Since ancient times, Chinese acrobatics has attached great importance to the top work. In the Han Dynasty, there are many images of taking the top and somersaulting in masonry and murals and terracotta figurines. Chinese acrobatic artists, even the performance of ancient juggling actors should have a solid foundation of kung fu, the so-called "cultural theater martial arts work", that is, refers to this. There is no solid kung fu, in the coat stuck on hundreds of pounds of props, but also from the comfort, somersaulting into water and fire is not.

Secondly, the second is to seek stability in the danger, static in the movement, showing a calm, skillful, accurate skills and hard work of a thousand hammers. Such as "tightrope walking" in a variety of thrilling performances, are required to "stable"; "shaking board", "shaking ladder" and so on. Stools on stools, people stacked on people, but the top of the people must be on the basis of the turbulence and uncertainty in the search for peace and quiet, which must have a very calm mind, superb skills and a thousand times hard training combination, which shows the potential energy and balance of the power of harnessing the performance of human beings in overcoming obstacles to transcendental spirit.

The third is to seek the strange in the ordinary. With the skillful and ingenious method, we can create something from nothing, showing the creative power of human beings. This artistic feature in the world's most amazing "ancient color magic" in the most prominent. The biggest difference between Chinese magic and Western magic is that the magic is concerned about the use of sound and light props, the stage is brilliant, shiny, but the actor just a robe, a thin single, plain and simple, no color, but this robe but to change a thousand strange things, from the wine dishes to live fish, live birds, nothing strange. Actor a heel can offer a fiery burning copper basin, another heel and take out a huge, fish and water fish tank.

The fourth artistic feature is the combination of lightness and heaviness, the spirit into the realization of the soft and hard kung fu complement each other. The most expressive of this artistic feature is the "stomping technology" program, stomping technology is mostly performed by actresses, the actor lying on a special square platform, with both feet to stomp. As for the stomping object, almost all kinds of things, from the Shaoxing wine jar, color cylinder, tile bell to the table, ladder, wooden columns, wooden boards and drums and so on, light to the silk umbrella, heavy to more than a hundred pounds of living people; stomping object, or fast spinning, or over the free, from the smooth porcelain color cylinder, to the bulky wooden table, can stomp like a wheel, only to see the shadow not see the object.

Fifth is the combination of superhuman strength and dexterous heeling skills. The weight of the base of the Stacked Luohan is amazing. The Jaigan of the Tang Dynasty has a record of one person topping eighteen. A lacquer-painted slingshot from the Tang Dynasty, which is now in Japan and is a National Treasure, has an image of one person holding up six people on the back of the bow. In the recent "jackhammer", an old actor lifts four stone burdens and seven or eight actors with his hands and feet, weighing more than a thousand pounds, which demonstrates superhuman strength. The traditional "pull hard bow", "playing the sword" are programs with great weight.

Sixth is the use of a large number of household utensils and labor tools as props, rich in the flavor of life. Bowls, plates, altars, cups, ropes, whips, forks, poles, ladders, tables, chairs, umbrellas, hats and so on, these ordinary things, in the hands of Chinese acrobats, changing all sorts of shapes, showing the close relationship between Chinese acrobatics and the labor life, and some of the programs are the products of the combination of labor skills and folk games. Such as rope skills, divine whip, etc., is the herdsmen lassoing horses, driving cars and children jumping rope art.

The seventh is the combination of ancient arts and crafts and physical skills. Programs such as "Juggling" and "Turning Dish" intermingle the art of Chinese porcelain painting with acrobatics. The flower umbrellas and colorful sheets in "Stomping Technique" also give people the beauty of traditional art.

The eighth is that Chinese acrobatics has great adaptability, performance forms and places are diversified. Plaza, theater, street, guest rooms, as many as a hundred people gathered, as small as one person's live performance. It is this wide range of adaptability so that it can survive through the ages.

The ninth is that Chinese acrobatics has a strict master tradition, and close relationship with sister arts. Chinese acrobatics has a strict inwardness, and each skill is passed on from generation to generation. At the same time, there is regionality, such as Wuqiao County in Hebei Province in northern China is a famous acrobatic township. Acrobatic artists respect their teachers and emphasize their skills, and they always try their best to preserve and pass on the skills passed down from their forefathers.

The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage, June 8, 2007, Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, acrobatic troupe was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the first Cultural Heritage Day Award.