World Championships of Magic to Kick off in Beijng, China
By admin on 2014-12-19

    China's top magicians are sharpening their wands in preparation for the World Championships of Magic (WCM) scheduled to kick off in Beijing Sunday.

    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 (29,275 U.S. dollars) 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.”

    Lin Jian, executive president of WCM Beijing 2009, said that the lack of funding is often a problem for Chinese magicians wanting to hold grand events.

    “Large-scale magic shows have been the weakness of Chinese magic, with money the most important reason. Magicians in foreign countries will invested tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in their props, which is impossible in China,” Lin remarked.

    “The WCM Beijing 2009 will showcase the improvement of China's large-scale magic shows in recent years,” Lin said. He added that as the popularity of magic is increasing in China, more and more young people are being drawn to the art.

    Qi Yuanrui is the youngest of the Chinese team at 21 years of age, Wu Pengcheng is 30 and Fu Yandong 34.

    The veteran of the team, 53-year-old Wang Qimo will present his personal journey for the world championship judges. Always dreaming of traveling afar, Wang will conjure a car and plane on the stage before vanishing in a helicopter piloted by a young beauty.

    Wu Pengcheng will present the most difficult act of the Chinese magicians in the competition. As part of his show, Wu will escape from a water tank, an act made popular by many foreign magicians in the past. For the world championships, Wu will attempt to escape through the bottom of a tank.

    In the lead up event to the world championships, Chinese magicians had the opportunity to showcase their talents with five Chinese female magicians attracting much attention.

　 “Female magicians, especially close-up artists, are not widely accepted in Europe because of preconceptions,” said magician Qu Lei. “According to my own experience, female magicians can combine dance and magic and present the beauty of their body, but they cannot hide things as well as their male counterparts.”

    Qu focuses her magic on acrobatics, costume changing and traditional Chinese martial arts.

    Award winning Xu Fengmei conjures bowls, fire pans and other items without the aid of an assistant, desk or props.

    The World Championships of Magic are being at the National Convention Center in Beijing from Sunday to July 31.