Boshuquan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of ten he became a disciple of the veteran acrobats Bu Jinkuan, Wu Yihong and others, training hard at the craft. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jianhu Acrobatics in Jianhu, Jiangsu: The 'Eighteen Troupes' of Jianhu acrobatics are distributed in Qingfeng Town, central Jianhu County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. Historically, the eighteen natural villages centered on Qingfeng were laid out in scattered order, forming eighteen circus groups. Jianhu 'Eighteen Troupes' acrobatics serves as a bridge for friendly exchanges between peoples of all countries, a bond for economic and trade cooperation, and an envoy for the spread and exchange of culture and art; it plays a positive role in preserving distinctive local cultural resources and promoting local socioeconomic development. Jianhu acrobatics comes from the Qingfeng area in central Jianhu County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Jianhu already had 18 circus troupes, whose footsteps reached across China and Southeast Asia; by the early Qing, more than two hundred households of local performers made their living from the 'hundred entertainments', among them the Gao, Wan, Wu and other ten great families whose skills were outstanding and whose fame spread far and wide. According to historical records, the 'Eighteen Troupes' acrobatics has been passed down through twelve generations of inheritors up to the present. The performers organized troupes on the basis of families and village troupes, traveling by water to perform for pay abroad, and gradually formed eighteen circus groups centered on Qingfeng.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in January 1969 in Jianhu County, Jiangsu Province, he is a man of Han ethnicity. He is a national second-class acrobatics performer. He first appeared on stage at the age of fifteen, constantly reviewing and improving his work, and gradually formed a style of his own. His solo act Gao Che Ti Wan (Kicking Bowls on a Unicycle) once set a record by kicking six bowls onto his head in alternating upright and inverted stacks. After retiring from performance and moving into coaching, he recruited and trained more than a hundred students. He took part in the creative direction of the large-scale acrobatics drama Hou Xi You Ji (Monkey: Journey to the West), designing and coaching its acrobatic vocabulary. Within the documented technical tradition of Jianhu Acrobatics in Jianhu, Jiangsu: In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the footprints of Jianhu's 18 circus troupes reached across China and Southeast Asia. According to historical records, the 'Eighteen Troupes' acrobatics has already had twelve generations of inheritors; in the early Qing, performers of the 'hundred entertainments' in Jianhu numbered more than two hundred households, among whom the Gao, Wan, Wu and other ten great families had outstanding skills and far-reaching fame. Jianhu 'Eighteen Troupes' acrobatics merges vigorous boldness with gentle beauty, embedding difficult techniques within relaxed, lively, and exquisite movements; drawing on sister arts such as dance and gymnastics, it has formed a unique southern school of acrobatics. 'Paired Bowl Balancing', 'Duo Tightwire', 'Rolling Cups', 'Bowl Kicking on a High Bike', 'Duo Flower-Jar Balancing', 'Dunhuang Poses', 'Face Changing', and 'Spring River, Flowers, and the Moon' are traditional repertoire works of Jianhu acrobatics. At present, how to cultivate a domestic audience and let more people in China understand and come to love it is a problem that Jianhu acrobatics, as an outstanding intangible cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, must face. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Eighteen Troupes of Qingfeng": The Eighteen Troupes spread across Qingfeng township in central Jianhu county, where eighteen natural villages each formed a circus group. "Double Handstand Bowl-balancing and Two-person Wire": Traditional Jianhu pieces, the first balancing bowls on paired partners' hands, the second a two-person wire act of balance. "Rolling Cups, Bowl-kicking and Double Jar": Traditional items: cups rolled over the body, bowls kicked onto the head from a tall unicycle, and two performers tossing and catching jars. "Dunhuang Poses, Face-changing and Spring River": Items drawing on dance and gymnastics, taking Dunhuang mural poses, opera face-changing and a lyric riverside mood into acrobatic form.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Representative bearer of Jianhu Acrobatics, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. The acts he has transmitted and innovated have repeatedly won awards in competitions at provincial level and above: Fei Xiang (Flying) won a bronze prize at the Sixth Moscow International Circus Festival; Tiao Ban Deng Ren (Teeterboard Perch) won a silver prize at the Eighth China Acrobatics Golden Chrysanthemum Awards; and Jing Feng Dang - Xuan Zhuan Ruan Gang Si (Swinging in the Fierce Wind: Spinning on the Soft Wire) won a bronze prize at the Thirteenth France International Circus Festival and a prize at the Tenth China Acrobatics Golden Chrysanthemum Awards.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Boshuquan · National Representative Bearer Archive