China Loves their Olympics of Magic
By Laura Leigh Davidson
August 24, 2009
In 2008, China hosted one of the most spectacular Olympic Games in recent memory. This year, the country’s capital city of Beijing played host to another dazzling competition: the World Championships of Magic.
The weeklong event is also known as the “Olympics of Magic.” Every three years, magicians from around the world unveil their best tricks to compete for a gold medal in their area of the ancient art of illusion. An illusion is something that appears to exist but does not.
Shawn Farquhar of Canada won the 2009 gold medal for close-up magic. Close-up magic, or micro-magic, is performed for an audience that is generally no more than 10 feet away. Farquhar tricked the eyes of even the closest observers with his deck of magic playing cards. He showed the audience an ace of spades, and that he had nothing up his sleeves. The next moment, the card was clearly an ace of clubs!
A magician from Hungary named Soma captured the gold medal for stage magic. Stage magicians perform large-scale illusions, or tricks. Soma used everyday objects in his stage act. He ripped up every section of a newspaper into tiny pieces. But, much to his own apparent surprise, the newspaper kept putting itself back together.
Mad for Magic
Farquhar and Soma may have gone home with the medals, but the country of China is perhaps the biggest winner in this year’s World Championships of Magic. Thousands of people around the country have gone mad for all things magic.
Lu Chen, a popular magician from the neighboring country of Taiwan, helped spark the magic craze on a TV show this past spring. People could not stop talking about one trick in particular. Lu made a ring disappear and then reappear inside an egg. How could the audience see the ring reappear in the egg? Lu cracked the egg open for all to see.
But many in Lu’s audience wanted more than to be entertained. They wanted to know how the trick was done. This curiosity is helping spread “magic fever,” as many call it, throughout China.
To learn the secrets behind magic tricks, people are flooding magic training schools. Many magicians have started their own schools to teach the tricks of their trade to curious beginners.
China has a long history of magic for teachers to draw on. Baofeng (bow-fung), a region in the southeastern part of the country, is the home of Chinese magic. There are records of magic acts being performed in Baofeng that date back more than 1,400 years.
Magic Money in Tough Times
Magic fever is helping local businesses cope with tough economic times too. In addition to booming business at new training schools, stores that make stage costumes and tents for magic shows have seen a big jump in sales.
The town of Zhouying (joe-yeeng) takes in about 75 percent of its income from magic schools and related businesses. Magician Wang Xianbo (sheon-bo) was born in Zhouying. He spoke to USA Today about his hometown, which is known as “Magic Village.” Wang says many residents of the village have turned from farming to magic-related businesses to make a living.
“Magic is hot now,” Wang said. “Many of my neighbors are traveling around China performing.”
Wayne Wang, author of the book China Magic!, agrees. This “is [an important] year for magic in China,” he told USA Today. “Dancing and pop music are no longer fresh, but magic makes people’s eyes pop out. Magic is new and fashionable to a lot of young people.”
Source: Scholastic News Online
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