Za Shua

by Ken Letko  

Right in front of you someone does a one-handed handstand. On his free arm he spins two rings, on each of his ankles he's also spinning a ring. He seems to be looking right at you but he can hold his pose longer than you can concentrate on him. To your left you notice a young girl throwing six balls, but your focus shifts again to a young fellow flashing seven rings.

You are further distracted by another young girl who tosses five badminton rackets while idling on a unicycle. Again your attention is drawn elsewhere. From the corner of your eye you see two very young boys. One is riding a unicycle on a slack rope. The other is walking on top of a big bright red ball and juggling three plates by laying one on an elbow and forearm and then letting it slide off while he places another on his other elbow and forearm, continuously dropping and catching.

But again your attention is drawn to another performer who is lying down and rapidly spinning a table with her feet. You may think you're dreaming about the next IJA convention, but you've actually just walked into the practice gym for the beginning performers of the Shaanxi Acrobatic Troupe in the People's Republic of China .

In the Chinese language, za shua refers to juggling in general. As in many cultures, juggling in China is an ancient art that was probably developed indigenously. According to acrobatics expert A Liang, clay figurines, carvings and wall paintings show that there have been games of acrobatics, balancing objects on the forehead and ball juggling on the Asian continent since 720 B.C.

As time progressed so did the skill of the performers, and new apparatuses were added. During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) when the audience was primarily the ruling class, sword juggling was first introduced. Tian Jia Qian, director of the Tian Jin Acrobatic Troupe, reports that Han Dynasty stone carvings depict jugglers manipulating up to seven balls.

The poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) began to praise the performers of that time, and their written accounts began to help spread the popularity of acrobatic feats. Today these records attest to the sophistication of early performers.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the demand for palace acrobats declined. The performers set out in search of audiences, and tailored their acts to please their new, larger and more general audiences in established houses of amusement and in the open air.

This practice continued throughout the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (1279-1911). Then for about 40 years, acrobatics saw little development until after 1949 when it began to receive support from the Chinese Communist Party and the government of the People's Republic of China.

Chinese acrobats entertained foreign emissaries as long ago as 108 B.C.; and in the much more recent past they have exhibited their skills on five continents. Still today, jugglers, who are only one specialized group of performers that work  within the acrobatic troupe, can be found entertaining large general audiences in city squares during holidays like Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival.