China's top magicians are sharpening their wands in preparation for the World Championships of Magic (WCM) scheduled to kick off in Beijing Sunday.
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Fu Yandong's large-scale original magic show "Blue and White Porcelain." [Global Times]
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A total of nine Chinese magicians have been performing in a three-day lead up show to the competition, with four taking part in the high profile main event. Fu Yandong, Wang Qimo, Wu Pengcheng and Qi Yuanrong will go head to head with the world's best illusionists, conjurers and magicians.
Two of China's contenders are presenting acts centered on traditional Chinese life. An approach that Liu Shuzheng, consultant for the world championships, believes could give the Chinese magicians an edge.
Qi Yuanrong's magic act is set against a backdrop of a fishing festival of an ethnic minority group in Yunnan Province. Qi will cast a magical fishing line into the audience, with a large fish suddenly appearing on the end of the line. A single pearl from the fish's mouth will become 14 pearls and a single large pearl will become a big fish. Qi's show is full of ethnic flavor with traditional dance, costumes and music from the Yunnan minority.
Liu said that it is important for the Chinese magicians to differentiate themselves from the other competitors. In the past, international success has mainly come from presenting traditional themes.
"Eight of the 12 golden awards China won in previous international magic competitions featured Chinese elements and ethnic flavor," Liu explained.
Liu is labeled as the "Golden Coach." His students have picked up seven international and nine national awards in the past decade based on shows that Liu designed with traditional Chinese elements. Li Ning's Three Transformations, based on Sichuan opera's face changing, won him the International Golden Magic Wand Award in 2001.
"Li Ning and I attended the first international magic competition in Guilin in 1999 with our program inspired and adapted from foreign shows, but we failed to get any prizes. From then on, I realized that we must present something original in international competition," Liu added.
Fu Yandong hopes to turn heads at the world championships with his original show Blue and White Porcelain that tells the story of a Chinese porcelain maker. The young man dreams of a blue and white porcelain vase that spins in the air, a female elf appearing from the levitating vase, bringing him the world. Fu has been preparing the 10-minute long large-scale show for the past two years, investing more than 200,000 yuan (US$29,275) in its making.
"I spent all my money and borrowed some from my relatives," Fu said. "Thanks to the world championships, foreigners have the opportunity to watch my performance. I have no money to deliver the props to foreign countries."
