Linquan Acrobatics
01 · Historical Records
Based on unearthed artifacts, its history extends back more than 2,000 years. Its repertoire includes both traditional programs derived from folk variety arts, such as the equestrian acts Handstand on Horseback, Eating and Spitting Fire, and Pots and Pans Symphony, and newly created programs, such as the acrobatic pieces Cocktail on Swords and Sabers, Where Has the Time Gone, and Lotus Fairy.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Linquan acrobatics is a form of folk acrobatics passed down in Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province. A saying has circulated among the people: "For international acrobatics, look to Wuqiao; for folk acrobatics, look to Linquan." Linquan acrobatics is marked by novelty, wonder, ingenuity, and daring. It emphasizes new programs, new movements, new conceptions, and new ideas; it pursues artistic effects distinct from other acrobatics, with an aesthetic that seeks danger within the ordinary; its conceptions are ingenious, with beauty and imagination; it finds steadiness within peril and stillness within motion, displaying a cool, deft, and precise technique and thoroughly tempered hard skill. Its program arrangement emphasizes the coordinated use of technique with music, stage design, and sound, light, and electricity, making it unique in the acrobatics world. In its early days, Linquan acrobatics was also called "variety arts" (zashua); it was a means by which variety performers supported their families, and they made their own performance props and costumes. One household, one troupe; one family, one team: this became the hallmark of the early Linquan folk acrobatics troupes. After the reform and opening up, Linquan acrobatics gradually moved toward professionalization, producing a number of specialized towns, specialized villages, and specialized households for acrobatic performance. It is passed down among the people, is an art form much loved by the masses, and is an important vehicle of folk cultural exchange, of positive significance for promoting fine traditional Chinese culture.
Handstand on horseback and fire-eating
Traditional items rooted in street performance, combining horsemanship and fire tricks that once earned a living at village fairs.
Symphony of pots and ladles
A signature number turning everyday pots, bowls and cutlery into props, showing the art's closeness to local life.
Newly created items
Newly created items combining technique with music, stage design and lighting, distinctive within Chinese acrobatics.
One household, one troupe
The early organisational pattern: a family as a troupe, handing routines down by household and apprenticeship.
Farm implements as props
Farm tools, crockery and crop implements all served as props, forming part of the tradition's material stock.
Novel, strange, clever and perilous
Its aesthetic: new programmes and ideas, danger drawn from the ordinary, and steadiness within danger built on relentless training.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Linquan acrobatics troupes are distributed across 28 townships, subdistricts, and parks in Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, and have become an important component of Linquan's local economic development. Common farm tools and household implements from local production and daily life, such as pots, bowls, knives, forks, and agricultural tools, have all become their performance props for variety acts. Linquan acrobatics is passed down in Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, and the saying "For international acrobatics, look to Wuqiao; for folk acrobatics, look to Linquan" once circulated among the people; its troupes are distributed across 28 townships, subdistricts, and parks countywide and have become an important component of Linquan's local economic development. In its early days it was also called "variety arts" (zashua), a means by which variety performers supported their families; the performers made their own performance props and costumes, and "one household, one troupe; one family, one team" formed the hallmark of the early Linquan folk acrobatics troupes. Common farm tools and household implements, pots, bowls, knives, forks, and agricultural tools from local production and daily life were all adopted as performance props for variety acts. After the reform and opening up, Linquan acrobatics gradually moved toward professionalization, producing a number of specialized towns, specialized villages, and specialized households for acrobatic performance, and it now performs year-round throughout China and has gone abroad.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, Linquan acrobatics has performed year-round throughout China and has gone abroad, taking part in exhibitions and performances in many overseas countries, where it is loved by people around the world. Linquan acrobatics has a distinctly familial character of transmission: its early programs were mostly inherited through family transmission across generations and master-led apprenticeship, and it developed over many generations through oral and heart-to-heart teaching. Linquan acrobatics has a long history and a distinctive style. It is a historical witness to local socioeconomic development, forms of mass entertainment, and the transmission of folk art, and is of value for the study of folk recreational cultural forms in northern Anhui.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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