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Direction Wuqiao, a village in northern China where acrobats, jugglers and trapeze artists have been trained for 2,000 years. It hosts about sixty specialized schools. Among them, a state-recognized establishment hosts 200 students, who train tirelessly six days a week.
They say that here, everyone is an acrobat, from 7 to 77 years old. People come from all over the country to admire the performances of street entertainers, jugglers and other aerial acrobats. Art has been practiced here for 2,000 years. Wei Chun Hua has been juggling for 8 years and has no intention of stopping. The city of Wuqiao (China) is the Chinese cradle of acrobatics, entertainment and circus. Its inhabitants once went to amuse the emperors in Peking (China). The city’s acrobats are still renowned as the best in the country.
Only one state-recognized school
Of the sixty acrobat schools in Wuqiaoonly one is recognized by the State, the School of Art and Acrobatics. It has 200 students, aged 6 to 17, who train six days a week, six hours a day. Xu Yang is one of 40 teachers at the school, an alumnus of the school himself. “This group already has five years of experience. And for this alone movement, you have to train for a year”he describes. Despite the level of requirement, enrollment requests have never been so numerous in the school.