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Special Report  

Cangzhou: Creating Livelihoods from Local Culture

By staff reporter VERENA MENZEL

CHINA'S recent reforms of the cultural industry has created many opportunities for urban and rural areas all over the country to develop their cultural resources into businesses, but these communities have faced great challenges in the process of doing so. Cangzhou City of Hebei Province and Wuqiao County under its jurisdiction have experienced varying degrees of success. Cangzhou has built a reputation as the world's kungfu Mecca, the cultural industry is an important pillar of local economy. And Wuqiao, with a long and robust history of acrobatics,  has revived this heritage and made a strong return to the performance industry.

Keeping Abreast of the Times

He Shusen ignites a cigarette, inserts it into his ear and exhales the smoke through his nostrils. If that wasn't enough, he then swallows the still lit cigarette without burning himself. Some time later, the cigarette magically reappears, unharmed. This makes some audience members squirm and shift uncomfortably in their seats. One thing is for sure, however: when he performs his show at Wuqiao Acrobatics World, the audience admires his performance from the bottom of their hearts. Not only is he skillful at using his nose to play the trumpet or balance a tray of teacups and a thermos, He is constantly making jokes and pulling faces at the audience.

He Shusen has a huge stage presence and that has made him a household name as well as one of the biggest attractions at Wuqiao Acrobatics World.

"You have to offer people something unique," He says, explaining the secret of his success. He is a veteran performer, having made his debut on stage at the age of eight and worked in show business for more than 30 years. He learned his skills and showmanship from his father, who had in turn learned them from his own father, a tradition that goes back six generations. He has already taught some performance skills to his own three children, but despite his continuation of this tradition He has a strong sense of the need to move with the times. "As performers we cannot stand still," he says. "We have to adapt to the changing market and the demands of the audience."

He's approach of embracing both tradition and modernity is a reflection of Wuqiao Acrobatics World, an acrobatic theme park that was opened in 1993. Here you can marvel openmouthed at all sorts of outlandish sights, from rope-dancing mice and bicycle-riding monkeys to sword swallowers and children balancing ladles and bowls on their heads. The park is one of the top tourist attractions in China and one of the 30 cultural hotspots in Hebei Province, attracting more than 2.6 million visitors and RMB 82.72 million during the past five years.

Increasing Global Presence

Wuqiao, currently home to nearly 3,000 performers in over 60 acrobatic troupes, has become an international center for circus and acrobatics. Not only have they commanded audiences in hundreds of cities across China and in over 60 countries, their biennial festival, one of the three major acrobatics festivals worldwide, attracts acrobatics enthusiasts and professionals from across the world.

Wuqiao has been building its reputation for excellence in acrobatics for several decades. In 1985, the county opened the first professional school for acrobatic arts in China. Since then, the school and those that followed have been committed to discovering and developing acrobatic talent. Today, the county is home to 23 public acrobatics schools with a total enrollment of 1,800. In 1999 Wuqiao's acrobatic training schools began to enroll foreign students, and about 200 foreigners have graduated from them to date.

Building a Strong Cultural Industry

With such international fame and draw, one would think that acrobatics would be the leading source of revenue in Wuqiao. However, Zhang Qinghui, director of the Information Office of the county government, shakes his head at this assumption. For the three decades since the reform and opening-up began, the service industry, of which tourism, training and acrobatics are all a part, has continually expanded. The county, however, still faces a number of challenges that it needs to address. "The popularity of Wuqiao acrobatics is disproportionate to the development of this sector," says Zhang. "The cultural industry has relatively a small share in the county's economic growth. Although Wuqiao is rich in cultural resources, it is yet to transform them into economic returns."

This situation is likely to change in the period of the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015), as the provincial government has declared the promotion of its cultural industry a major focus. "Cultural development plays an important role in the overall development of the region," says Wang Jingwu, deputy director of the Information Office of Hebei Provincial Government. "We encourage local officials to adopt international vision and cooperate more to better tap the market."

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VOL.59 NO.12 December 2010 Advertise on Site Contact Us