Rope Jumping
2 min readDouble Trapeze and the Legend of the Sun
According to an ancient and magical legend, ten Sunbirds used to wheel through the sky over the remote mountain home of the ethnic Li people of western China. Unprotected from the blazing light radiatingfrom the Sunbirds’ bodies, the Li’s mountain village suffered from intense heat and drought for many years. The earth became parched and lifeless, and the people had no food. Determined to deliver the vil-lagers from their predicament, two heroic supernatural archers, Brother and Sister A’ Chang, climbed to the top of a bamboo ladder five kilometers high, and shot nine of the ten Sunbirds out of the sky. The land ofthe Li came back to life, and the people, plants, and animals once more flourished in the new spring of the world.
In the acrobatic act A’ Chang Shoots the Sun, this ancient legend is retold by two couples performing on the double flying trapeze. The two trapezes swinging high overhead represent the five-kilometer-high bamboo sky ladder, one couple playing Brother and Sister A’ Chang, and the other the Sunbirds. Utilizing a range of aerial skills, the performers portray the heroic pair valiantly shooting down the Sunbirds. Surrounded by raging thunder and flashing lightning, brother and sister loose their heavenly volleys one after another, as the Sunbirds streak and loop through the air in an attempt to dodge the arrows. After an extended and hot pursuit, the archers finally bring down nine of the Sunbirds, and the people of the Li are saved.
The combination of narrative and acrobatics in A’ Chang Shoots the Sun serves to heighten its symbolic appeal, and draw the audience deep into the magical world of legend. In 1997, the Flag Circus of China won the Presidential Prize of the Republic of France at the World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow in Paris for its performance of this piece, bringing Chinese aerial acrobatics to the attention of the world for the first time.
