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Chinese Acrobatics and Wines

Chinese acrobatics art keeps many traditional items with a long history, some of which have close connection with wines and drinking vessels. Chinese wine culture has a long history and traditional acrobatics and some outstanding modern items all shine with splendor of wine culture.

In Chinese traditional acrobatic performance, quite a few items directly originated from juggling of tools used in production or daily life. For instance, drinking vessels and wine containers in different shapes were successfully applied in acrobatic items favored by people.

For instance, Jar Tricks is a famous repertoire and still popular today. In ancient China, the peasants used jar, originally a grain container or wine container, to perform various feats in celebration of a bumper harvest. Later, it was adapted by acrobats and became a very popular number among the broad masses of the people. It demonstrates simplicity and steadiness and possesses a distinctive national flavor.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), Shaoxing Yellow Wine was well known nationwide and its containers were also valuable crafts with painting of different dragons and phoenix on them. The wine jars became props in some acrobatics repertoires.

Another example is Juggling Objects with the Feet, in which the performer lies on a small table or frame and uses both feet to juggle and toss various objects back and forth through the air. Most of the objects in performance are jars of Shaoxing Yellow Wine.

Some conjuring performances also involve wines and wine containers such as Kong Hu Da Jiu (producing wines in empty flagon), and Fu Gui Xian Jiu (Fuigui fairy wine), etc.

Some modern acrobatic items with wine containers as props also become big successes. For instance, the beautiful and graceful Rolling with Cups of Water by Xu Meihua, a young woman from a small acrobatic troupe of Anqing, Anhui Province won the President of the Republic of France Award, the world's most coveted prize for acrobatics. In the performance, 108 glass cups were employed as props and the item demonstrates the combination of wine culture and modern acrobatic art. 

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