Shanghai Circus World

With Charlie and Ella with us, we took the opportunity for another first – to go to the Shanghai Circus World.  The Circus is so popular with its nightly shows that it has its own Metro station named after it. It hosts a show called, rather strangely, ERA, The Intersection of Time, which despite the daft name puts on an old-fashioned, but excellent acrobatic show.

Outside the permanent “big top” there

Old lady selling things that glow in the night

Structure in the Centre of the Circus Ring

were little old ladies selling strange things that lit up – whether they were intentionally selling things that would put off the acrobats inside I wasn’t too sure – but once we had got inside and settled in our seats a woman a couple of rows in front of us had to be told to switch off her flashing mickey mouse ears.

Sphere at the End of The Show

In our seats we were confronted with a mirrored structure in the centre of the circus ring (see above) and at the end of the performance this sphere stood in its place.  Photographs were not permitted “to protect the artist’s copyright” which I found rather amusing in a country where western goods are ripped off mercilessly.  However I did respect their wishes, not just to protect their artists’ rights but also I didn’t want any camera flash accidentally going off and distracting their spectacular performances.

That doesn’t stop me trying to describe to you what they did to entertain us that evening.  The first act involved several girls doing spectacular tricks on bicycles which enthralled Charlie who can do a number of tricks on his fixie but nothing like the tricks that these girls were doing – handstands, moving between the bikes and other acrobatic tricks as well as having completely mastery over their machines.

Next we were treated to a man throwing and catching a huge ginger jar and a large Chinese pottery goldfish bowl – on his head, on his shoulders, on his feet.  I have a large Chinese goldfish bowl and I can just about pick it up and lift it a few metres.  I was very impressed.  And Richard was very impressed as the man had turned up with a large Alibaba-style pottery jar on the back of a trike and five female acrobats appeared from it one at a time.  None of us could imagine how they managed to get themselves inside and breathe – let alone get elegantly themselves out again.

We were treated to more acrobatics with several women doing the crab on top of one another and a man juggling whilst standing on a short plank balanced on a cylinder which was then on a the deck of a mini-boat.

Next came the tumblers who dived through rings at various heights who criss-crossed each other as they dived through hoops at right angles to each other.  There were trapeze artists on bungee swings and girls keeping six spinning plates going – three in each hand  – as they did acrobatic tricks.

Other acrobats used a see-saw to give them leverage, which they eventually used to toss a man into a chair –  a chair on top of a long pole, the other end of which was balanced on another man’s forehead.  They used safety ropes for that one.

Another act used two very long lengths of fabric suspended from the centre of the big top via a chain.  The lengths of fabric were twisted around the wrists of the two performers – a man and a woman – to attach themselves and lock them in place and then they launched themselves into a romantic routine as they slowly floated above the rim of the circus ring.  They did the normal tricks that trapeze artists would do, but the final one was more spectacular than most with the girl outstretched rolling down the man’s leg to be stopped and then supported solely by his upturned foot – a position they held for what seemed to me way too long.

At one point two trampolines were set up in series and a series of acrobats would bounce spectacularly on them.  At the far end, whilst all this was going on two strong men stood at each end of a very flexible plank of wood which they had each placed on a shoulder.  Acrobats proceeded to use this as a third trampoline and joined in with the bouncing on the more conventional flexible fabric.

Stored in the ceiling of the big top was this multi-wheeled contraption which was lowered to hang vertically.  Each wheel spun around  – it was a bit like watching a vertical tea cup waltzer at a fairground and the acrobats would move around inside the metal circles, outside the metal circles and travel nonchalantly between the two, with the odd “stumble” just to add to the tension in the crowd.  This was the act that Ella liked the least.

Somewhere in the midst of all this a man sitting in front of us proceeded to answer his mobile phone and carry on a long conversation with the caller…….  We were all flabbergasted.

The final act gave Richard his biggest thrill as it involved motorbikes – anything to do with motorbikes puts a big grin on his face and this time was no exception.  That large white sphere left in situ at the end of the show was used to house a motorbike which drove in horizontal and then vertical circles.  He was joined by another bike doing the same thing, and then another each of them doing slightly off vertical circles.  Each time they changed direction the leader briefly sounded his horn and they changed their pattern of movement around the inside of the sphere.  And then another joined them, and then another and then another!  The smell of petrol engines filled the air. Richard was grinning from ear to ear.  But they hadn’t finished there. They finally called it a day once 9 motorbikes were whizzing around inside what now seemed a very tiny ball.

One onlooker didn’t find this performance nearly so thrilling as Richard.  She spent the entire act looking at the messages etc. on her mobile phone.  We loved the circus, but I wonder for how much longer the performers can keep their audiences away from their mobile phones and as entertained as us.