Sleights of Hand and Mind

Most people regard magic as fascinating but a recent investigation carried out by China Youth Daily Social Research Center indicates they also believe it is good for intellectual development. Of the 85 percent of 1,177 respondents who declared themselves interested in magic, 20 percent rated their interest very high. Asked if they were interested in learning magic, 56 percent affirmed they were, while 32 percent indicated a strong interest.

Liu Qian, a parvenu magician, but tempered by years of practice.

On a visit to Magic Base Camp, a haven for would-be conjurers on a bustling street in Beijing, the salesperson can be seen trying to serve five customers at once, which makes the three-meter-long counter looked pretty crowded. "It's the exactly same with Liu Qian's magic," the clerk assures us. Liu Qian produced an eight-minute magic show for the televised 2009 Spring Festival Party last January, a gala with the highest audience ratings in China.

The young magician from Taiwan became a household name overnight, ensuring a surge of interest in magic performances. His new book Magic Allures III: Passport to Liu Qian's Magic is a top seller on one of China's biggest online bookstores. Reputedly the celebrity is among the hottest of TV viewer magnets and gets paid as much as RMB 100,000 for a single appearance. Rubbing off a little of his success are the online games purveyors who recently rewarded him with RMB 10 million for becoming their spokesman.

In fact Liu Qian's TV magic show premiered two years ago on South East Television, but it was the eight minutes in the CCTV Spring Festival Party that won him instant fame. The executive editor-in-chief of Acrobatic and Magic, Xu Qiu, explains his big break, "The party used to allot three to four minutes for a magic segment, but Liu got an unprecedented eight!" According to the same poll mentioned earlier, 64 percent of respondents suddenly discovered their latent interest in magic the night they witnessed Liu's micro-stagemanship. "Instead of a clever and distracting performance manipulating big stage props, Liu allowed close-ups of his sleights-of-hand, which was new to audiences on the mainland. His obvious skill and charm made the segment more attractive than previous years," Xu added.

Maintaining the illusion through close-ups demands extreme dexterity. Magicians usually use common smaller things like balls, coins, rings, or poker chips as props for these sleights-of-hand. "In this specialty, the frame of the close-up is as critical as the grand machinations of a stage-sized ritual, in fact the stage fell out of favor with Chinese magicians in about 1950," said a professional who demanded anonymity. "Some of these shows remained unchanged for half a century. But you know, the tired old tricks with fishing, pigeons, and handkerchiefs just left audiences longing for a fresh take on the art. I have watched Liu's large-scale tricks, and find these stage performances just so so."

For those who'd rather do than watch, the Magic Base Camp also teaches magic. "We were lucky to find out the instructional video for Liu Qian's magic right after the appearance that made him famous," recounts a salesperson surnamed Zhang. So many customers demanded to learn right in the store, his friend and boss, Cui, asked him to show up and help sell magic paraphernalia. "Business used to be bad. In the last week before Spring Festival, we sold three or four items a day, which meant less than 100 bucks profit," recalled Cui. "But since Liu Qian made magic fashionable, our turnover has reached RMB 3,000 a day. Especially in February, many guys came in here to learn magic tricks as a Valentine surprise."