Since ancient times, China has had many mysterious kung fu and techniques, no matter which dynasty in ancient times, there are "artists" who rely on skills for a living, but with the continuous development of China, these technical tricks have gradually been forgotten by people, and these technical tricks have faded from the public eye with people's forgetting.
Although the technical tricks were "forgotten" by the Chinese, but it was very attractive to the attention of foreigners, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there was an American who studied Western tricks very much like Chinese tricks, and even combined the two to invent a set of "freehand bullets" unique skills.
In order to attract more people's attention, the American also named himself Cheng Liansu, who was once known as the "fire cloud evil god" of the Qing Dynasty. But Cheng also had a stunt, defeated also a stunt, and he eventually died in his own stunt, what kind of twists and turns happened in the middle?
The collision of west and east
As we all know, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty in China, the Western powers used force to open China's closed door, and the main purpose at that time was only to open up china's market to meet the development of capital.
China's unique Oriental culture is completely different from the West, which attracts many foreigners, including Chinese juggling, which is just not doing its job in the eyes of Chinese, but foreigners are very keen to watch, in order to survive, the Qing Dynasty Jin Lingfu had to go to the United States to perform juggling.
It was also this performance that influenced Cheng Liansu's life. Cheng Liansu, whose original name was William Robinson, has had a strong curiosity about the things around him since he was a child, and has also developed his "root-digging" personality.
When watching Chinese juggling with his father for the first time, the young Cheng Liansu was deeply attracted to it, and he even used all kinds of free time to learn juggling and Western magic, as long as there is a Chinese juggling place, there must be Cheng Liansu's figure, in this continuous viewing and speculation at the same time, Cheng Liansu also gradually mastered the mysteries in the juggling.
Pick up bullets with your bare hands
It can be said that Jin Lingfu indirectly influenced the future development of Cheng Liansu, Cheng Liansu after mastering Chinese and Western magic, he hoped that he could make a living like Jinlingfu, in order to better attract the audience, Cheng Liansu dressed himself as a Chinese, he also wore a robe and a coat, but also grew long braids.
But as an American, why are you so keen to dress up as a Chinese? Perhaps because of preconceptions, Jin Lingfu began to perform tricks in the United States before Cheng Liansu, and Cheng Liansu also had the opportunity to contact Chinese juggling because of Jinlingfu.
Therefore, Cheng Liansu knew that if he had been performing in the United States, he would always live under the "shadow" of Jinlingfu, so he moved his "performance stage" to other countries.
In fact, Cheng Liansu's idea is correct, he did make his own reputation in other European countries in the image of the Qing Dynasty, and he earned a lot of money in Europe, especially Cheng Liansu's own invention of picking up bullets with his bare hands, which was applauded and applauded by the audience.
The principle of picking up bullets with bare hands is very simple, Cheng Liansu first unabashedly showed the audience the guns he used in his performance, and let the audience personally confirm that the bullets in this gun were real.
After starting the performance, Cheng Liansu aimed the muzzle of the gun at the door of his head, and the "bang" of the gun touched the hearts of the audience. Everyone thought that Cheng Liansu would fall to the ground because of this, but as soon as the camera turned, the bullet appeared in his hand.
It is not that Cheng Liansu really has this ability, but because the gun used in the performance is specially treated, the bullet is indeed real, but at the moment of pulling the trigger, the bullet is pushed into a small hole in the gun.
The bullet in his hand was not the bullet in the gun. However, this blindfold method attracted many people, and thus made Cheng Liansu famous throughout Europe.
Success is also a stunt, and defeat is also a stunt
Cheng Liansu continued to travel around Europe with this skill, making people in various European countries very fond of it, but Cheng Liansu performed in the Green Forest Empire in London in 1918 when a serious performance accident occurred.
Because he has been running around various countries to perform this trick for many years, the prop gun in the trick has become worn out, and Cheng Liansu did not find out until the performance, when the real bullet was fired, directly hitting Cheng Liansu's key point.
After Cheng Liansu fell to the ground, the audience still thought that this was a part of the performance, but after a long time, Cheng Liansu did not stand up, which made people realize that there was a performance accident.
Although Cheng Liansu, who fell to the ground, was sent to a nearby hospital for treatment, due to the bullet's close proximity to the location of Cheng Liansu's heart, coupled with excessive blood loss on the ground, he was pronounced dead the next day.
The essence of this trick has been declassified, and the autopsy report has also been marked as an accidental death, but some conspiracy theorists do not consider it an accident.
According to another magician in the United States, Jack Klassen, Cheng Liansu was saddled with various debts because of his performance of tricks, and his wife could not stand Cheng Liansu's various obsessions with juggling, and hooked up with Cheng Liansu's manager and had an extramarital affair.
An accident was carefully planned in order to hide the eyes and ears, but the real reason is unknown, the thing happened too suddenly, and even Su's painstaking study of the trick is still worthy of praise.
brief summary:
Risk and return are the same, ten years of work offstage, a minute on stage, stage performance accidents are common things, but the more professional the performance of the probability of accidents, although Cheng Liansu is skilled in techniques, but he is a little too neglectful of the maintenance of the props in the performance, so that he eventually died under his own skills.
Regardless of the period, people are always keen to pursue new and exciting things, perhaps these things can help people in the pressure of work and family to show their nervous emotions, the more exciting things the higher the risk.
Just like the roller coasters, pendulums and other entertainment facilities in today's society, although these entertainment facilities can attract the attention of tourists, some people have died because of them.
It can be seen that the pursuit of exciting things is not a bad thing, but as a stimulus, whether it is Cheng Liansu or the administrator of the entertainment venue, it should be carefully maintained for its facilities, after all, no one wants to pay their lives while earning money.