Acrobats of China Vacation Package

China, one of the world's oldest civilizations, has a written history which goes back 3,500 years. China, which lies in eastern Asia, is the world's largest nation in population, and is the third largest in area. Only Russia and Canada have more territory.

What do spaghetti, a wheelbarrow, the compass, paper, gunpowder, silk cloth, porcelain and acrobatics have in common? They were all invented in China.

The first recorded use of gunpowder by the military was during a period of Chinese history known as the Five Dynasties. They simply put the gun powder in clay posts, set them on fire and threw them. The fiery explosion was enough to send their enemies running in the other direction.

Several hundred years before the invention of gun powder, in a period known as the Qin Dynasty, something we use everyday without even thinking much about it, was invented: paper!

The Chinese take great pride in what is known as "the four inventions," the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing. They should be proud! These inventions transformed sea transport, warfare and literacy not just in China but all over the world.

What about spaghetti? If you think spaghetti is Italian, think again. Spaghetti originated in China. And the next time you are in a hardware store and pass a wheelbarrow, remind yourself that it was invented in China also.

Although we have put to use many of the things the Chinese people have invented, there are some practices in China which are much different from those we are used to. For example, the Chinese calendar is much different from ours. When our calendar came to the year 2000, the Chinese calendar shows the year 4698! Obviously, their calendar is several thousand years older.

The Chinese do not use an alphabet to make up words. They use characters. Each character represents a thought, a concept or an idea, which has a meaning of its own. These characters are combined in group of one, two, three or four together to form what we think of as words. Acrobatics is another example of Chinese inventiveness. Ancient stone carvings, earthen pottery and early written works trace the ancestry of today's spectacular acts to an era long since vanished. Even Confucius's father was an acrobat and a strongman of unrivaled strength who, it is claimed, lifted 1,000 pound city gates to let an army storm through.

It was during the Han Dynasty, more than two thousand years ago, that the Chinese saw the first acrobats, magicians, and jugglers. Acrobatics, with amazing skill of strength and impossible balance, developed out of the annual village harvest celebrations. Chinese farmers and village craftsmen, with relatively little to do over the long winter decided to spend their time improving their societal positions by becoming acrobats. They practiced the art form with just about anything they could find around the house and farm. . . cups, saucers, tables, chairs, plates . . . Even their own bodies, with which they formed human walls and pyramids. Every year in the fall the village's peasants would join in the village to share in a celebration of a bountiful harvest . . .a sort of Chinese Thanksgiving. It was at this time that the common people would show off their skills by performing fun and exciting feats of daring and strength using household tools and common items found around the farm and workshop. Building on the traditional performances, today's artists have added new techniques and spectacular stunts thrilling audiences around the globe. Highly skilled, rigorously trained, and superbly talented, these performers follow an unbroken tradition since 700 BC.

Chinese Acrobatic Skills

Hoop diving has its origins during the harvest time when the field workers used a tool shaped like a large tambourine. These large hoops with a woven mesh bottom were used to shake and divide the grain from the leaves and stems. It became a tradition to challenge each other to see who could dive through these hoops and to see how many or how tall a stack could they dive through.

Similarly, the pottery maker would learn to juggle and spin his wares. Spinning a pot to make it uniformly round and smooth is a natural action of the potter. However, when he adds to this a few tricks of juggling and tossing high into the air, he becomes a local hero performing a thrilling feat.

Climbing to the top of a tall stack of chairs. . . the spinning of plates on the end of a long bamboo stick . . . balancing small wooden benches on the head . . . flipping bowls with your feet . . climbing tall poses and long leather straps . . . these and most other traditional Chinese acrobatic acts derived from the lifelong skills of the village peasant, river sailor and local craftsman.

Children learned skills from their fathers and grandfathers before they were of school age. The tradition of Chinese acrobatics is therefore one which has been passed down from generation to generation to become the feats of strength, balance and grace that comprise this unique tradition of China. Like traveling European gypsies, the great acrobatic families of China would entertain the city rulers and the village people at ceremonial carnivals and public theaters. Today there remain only a few brothers and sisters of the famous old acrobatic families. They have now organized China's traditional entertainments into professional acrobatic troupes with formal academies for training young promising entertainers and internationally award winning performing companies. Still today China has an annual competition for the acrobatic academies. Acrobats representing troupes from all over the nation compete once a year to see who will win the all important Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions.

Skill of "Qi Gong" or "spirits from air", a semi - religious study of the form of breathing and movement is very important to acrobatics. Qi Gong teaches one to use the mind and body together in perfect harmony with each other. While a thorough knowledge of Qi Gong is not a requisite for acrobats performing with modern-day circuses, the tradition of Qi Gong has roots in a 2000-year tradition that began in China. All early acrobats were well founded in the tradition of Qi Gong. The incredible performances are much like the acts first put on for Chinese emperors and royalty for the last 2000 years.

The Dragon Dance In Chinese mythology, the Dragon King rules the middle kingdom. The Dragon King lives in the heavens. He is the fiery king in the sky. His first wife is the Firebird, or Phoenix. They are the sun and the moon and rule the natural order of the world.

The Dragon King has a son, who is also a Dragon. He is the prince that rules the earth. This son lives in a magnificent palace in the waters of the earth. The wild oceans, the rivers that rush through the mountains and plains, and the beautiful lakes are the domains of the Dragon Prince. As it is in many places on earth, the rainfall is seasonal, it comes and goes during the year. In periods of drought people thought it might never rain again. In China, the people were always worried about whether it would rain. For this reason, the magic men, or Shamans, gave the people of the village the Dragon Dance, performed for the Dragon Prince, to remind him to send rain. This is very similar to our native Americans and people in other cultures who perform a rain making dance to bring rain to the people and the land.

In ancient China, the main crop was millet, not rice. Rice, which was for wealthy city people, needs a great deal of water to grow. When the new year arrived and spring came to the land, the people would perform the dragon dance in celebration... and perhaps the Dragon Prince would remember the people's needs once again.

The Lion Dance - The Lion Dance is not originally from China although we know it now as a part of Chinese tradition. As we know, there are no lions in China, the lion is only found in Africa. The Lion Dance was actually a gift to an ancient emperor of China from a kingdom far to the west. Perhaps the Lion Dance originated from a time when the African lion roamed a territory much greater than the African continent.

The lion, with his strength, represents a powerful figure that protects the villagers from evil spirits and the devil. This is why Chinese often have lions guarding their gates and doorways. Lions are also thought to bring strength, balance and health to the village and its people.

Today there are two different styles of lions in China. The lion of northern China is big with a beautiful golden head and big eyes. The long fur hide of the Yak was traditionally used for the costume of the lion in northern China. In the south, the lion dance costumes are much more festive and comical. The body is made of different colored fabric and the head consists of fabric stretched over a wire frame.