The Magnificent Chinese Acrobatic Troupe Performance
and Our Dinner Hosting the Acrobats
By Irene Leung and Carolyn Bloomer
GCAA had a tremendous turnout of 70 members, families and friends attending the July 6th Sunday 4pm performance of the 马戏团Ma Xi Tuan at the Historic Asolo Theatre, located in the Ringling Museum Visitors Center. Most of the attending GCAA members came an hour before the performance in order to get good seats and we were able to be seated close to each other.
During the one- hour performance, Barry Zhang took all the great digital photos you see posted here on the web-site, and then prepared them overnight with lightning speed. Barry: Thanks a million!
We invited the acrobat troupe to be our guests after the show at our monthly dinner at Oriental Buffet. With 90 persons, we filled up the entire private room. After dinner we presented the interesting cultural exchange. Our curiosity covered many topics. Here we will share the priceless glimpses that resulted.
The Ma Xi Tuan troupe is based in Suzhou (Jiangsu Province), about 80 km west of Shanghai. Suzhou is one of the oldest cities in the Yangzi River Basin, dating back 2500 years to the Shang Dynasty. Many traditional Chinese performing arts originated in the Suzhou region, including acrobatics, 昆曲kunqu opera, ballad-singing, and 评弾pingtan story-telling. Today, Suzhou is one of China’s most prosperous cities (per capita income is the 5th highest in the PRC).
The young acrobats – who range in age from 13 to 18 -- all have a great innate passion for the acrobatic arts. They were recruited for training around the age of 6-7, and were chosen on the basis of physical agility, health, general aesthetic features -- especially their faces and spirits. In the early years of training, the hopeless are weeded out, and the gifted are cultivated over years of rigorous training. It takes a minimum of three years training before an outstanding young acrobat can be qualified to perform in public.
All the Ma Xi Tuan acrobats had performed in public for at least seven years. Although the acrobats lead a nomadic life during their overseas performance, they were not as homesick as we thought they might be. They can easily communicate with their families with cost-effective high tech computer gadgets such as email, Internet phone, and Skype. The young acrobats' parents were extremely proud of their achievements and accomplishments. The young acrobats' middle-school education is maintained by a tutor who travels with them.
The troupe is able to apply for visas for visitations to the U.S. and other countries because their troupe leader, Mr. Meng, is a U.S. Citizen living in Dallas. As long as an official invitation arrives and all paper work is in place, the troupe will be allowed to travel abroad. The Chinese government has been their main financial sponsor for travel.
These journeys are the best form of education in humanities, geography, and many diverse cultures – an opportunity only a few Chinese nationals are privileged to experience. The acrobats felt very proud to have such travelling experience to see the world. This is one of their biggest motivations for performing .
Although the boys and girls socialize while travelling, modern Chinese social standards consider them -- at age 13 to 18 -- under-aged for romance. Chinese young people are not encouraged to date until they are in their 20s, and they are encouraged to wait until age 25 to marry, when they will be more emotionally mature and financially secure.
When asked privately what had been the most interesting aspects of Sarasota the troupe has seen so far, six of the young men animatedly and excitedly replied that this is their closest encounter ever to Mother Nature! The troupe is staying at Sun ‘n’ Fun RV Park off Route 75. Every morning and evening they encounter wild rabbits, tortoises, birds, raccoons, squirrels and all kinds of exotic birds. The air is clean and fresh. They were able to get to know the sweet smells from the woods and forests. This experience, they said, they will never forget!
The area of China they come from, they said, is too populated – and there they could never have an opportunity to encounter friendly wild life in their natural habitat. They though this was their most life-changing experience.
At the end of dinner, the acrobats were presented with Victorian picture frames gift-wrapped individually for each one of the acrobats and a huge basket filled with luxury towels and body mists, shower gels and matching color luffas. The young girls in the troupe beamed with delight, at the anticipation of luxuriating in lovely bath products. They would keep the Ringling Museum postcards in the Victorian frames, they said, as a keepsake to remember this special dinner given by GCAA to honor them. They said they will never forget Sarasota, the lovely winter home of the big circuses in the U.S.
P.S. They all put on and take off their own make-up and wardrobe before and after each show. And: they tenderly care for the pigeons in their magic shows as pets.
P.P.S. If you have not yet seen the Ma Xi Tuan performance, please don’t deny yourself and your family this great opportunity! They will be performing until July 27. It’s only $12/adults (8 pm performances $13). Find the schedule at http://www.ringling.org/theater.asp?id=1854.