Recently, at a performance site in Suzhou, Anhui Province, an acrobatic actress fell from a height of seven or eight meters during a high-altitude performance, and finally died after being rescued.
The moment I saw the actress fall, my heart tugged. Although acrobatics has more than 2,000 years of cultural history and is an ancient art, every year CCTV's Spring Festival Gala's "high-precision, high-precision" program is completed by acrobatics, but I have always refused to watch acrobatic performances, when the actors make thrilling, difficult moves, my reaction is not to applaud, but to squeeze a cold sweat in the palm of my hand.
As a mother, I couldn't contain my sadness when I encountered an acrobatic show in a famous tourist area, where a group of children performed various high-altitude moves with their bare hands without protection. There is never a 100% thing in this world, and with one mistake, it is possible to face disability or death. At an age when he should have been studying, he was doing things that earned money with his life.
After the Anhui actress fell from a height, among the various opinions and opinions of netizens, one netizen's comment made me cry, this netizen said: It is only children who practice acrobatics.
01
What kind of kids practice acrobatics?
Located in the southeast of Hebei Province, Wuqiao County is the famous hometown of "acrobatics" in the mainland, and Wuqiao acrobatics was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In the local area, the business of acrobatics is as common as running a business. But the acrobatic training was so hard that almost all the local children in Wuqiao stopped engaging in acrobatics. In the face of the enrollment dilemma, the acrobatic troupe will travel thousands of miles to the southwestern provinces to recruit students.
In their opinion, the acrobatic troupe takes the children out, controls the food and control, and can earn money after a few years of training, which has "certain social value". And practicing acrobatics can make children have a skill, and they can support themselves after integrating into society, which often makes parents of some poor families moved.
Xiang Xuehua, 15, was a child in a village in Guizhou whose mother ran away when he was 9 years old. He has four siblings in his family, and the burden of raising them all falls on his father. The father was busy with his livelihood and did not have much energy to pay attention to his son, Xiang Xuehua often skipped school and ran away from home, and was a well-known "problem teenager" in the village.
Although Xiang Xuehua gave his father a headache, it was a key recruitment target for the acrobatic troupe. Under the lobbying of the admissions staff of the acrobatic troupe, the father signed the "Free Student Contract" and asked his son to go to Wuqiao County to learn acrobatics.
Many of Xiang Xuehua's classmates at school are in a similar situation to him, either they don't want to go to school, their families are poor, and their parents are divorced and unsupervised, and they are not really interested in acrobatics.
The head of the famous Guangzhou Warrior Acrobatic Troupe in China said that most of the children came in passively, or due to family problems, no one at home cared for, and they were sent to acrobatic schools, where they had food and drink; Or because of educational problems, the child does not want to go to school. If children can be given a choice, it is estimated that no child is willing to embark on this arduous road.
Xiang Xuehua felt that acrobatic training was very hard, and he had to get up at 5:30 in the morning, and he had to practice for more than ten hours every day. During his studies in the acrobatic troupe, he spent all but two days off during the Spring Festival.
After seven months of study, the group leader took him and three other children to Chengdu and handed them over to a performance agent, Manager Cao. Manager Cao managed these four children strictly, continuously performing every day, and often practiced until the early hours of the morning, and was fined 500 push-ups if the performance was smashed. Moreover, Manager Cao has a bad temper, often beats and scolds them, and the most egregious thing is that he never gives them breakfast.
These four minors worked hard every day to earn money, and had to endure all kinds of scolding, and the remuneration they received was only 100 yuan a month in pocket money, which the children found unbearable. Finally, at Xiang Xuehua's suggestion, the four children ran away and wanted to return to their own home.
The "acrobatic boy escape" incident was once on the hot search, and Xing Fei, an actor who had practiced acrobatics, spoke out for them, she recalled her painful experience of training that year, and called on everyone to pay attention to children who practice acrobatics, and children's acrobatics should be used as a inheritance of traditional Chinese art, rather than on the basis of depriving children of educational qualifications, but also bring serious harm to their bodies and minds.
02
An acrobat, who has been suffering since he was a child
A documentary called "Great Chinese Acrobatics" tracks and filmed the training and life of the young actors of Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School, allowing us to get a close understanding of the living state and spiritual world of acrobatic children.
This school is one of the best acrobatic schools in the area, with nearly 200 students, both 7~8 year old freshmen and students who are about to graduate after 6 years.
For these children, the most memorable thing is the weekly flexibility training, which is extremely painful, the tendons and ligaments are stretched to the limit of the human body, and the training is aimed at making these growing children achieve superhuman flexibility. This kind of training is the most basic course in the first year, and many senior students who have experienced it will still be painful every time they think about it.
Screenshot of the documentary "Great Chinese Acrobatics"
When talking about this problem, Li Ge, a 10-year-old trainee, said with a smile that the pain must hurt, but the pain is good. Because she can endure hardships, she has improved quickly, and in two years she entered the training team and can be in the top position in the show of Di Luohan.
Li Ge comes from a poor peasant family and began to learn acrobatics at the age of 8, she has a tenacity and likes to compete for the first, so she trains very hard, and when others rest, she is still practicing basic skills. Here, training is carried out in groups, and the basis of grouping is not by age but by level. It took her two years to join the training team, which meant she could participate in performances and competitions.
For a 10-year-old, the pressure of acting is far greater than the hardship of training. During the rehearsal before the first performance, Li Ge's usually easy handstand repeatedly failed due to psychological tension. With the teacher's appeasement, he was successful when performing.
In order to prepare for the quadrennial Golden Lion Art Festival and win the gold medal, Li Ge was a little anxious during training, and accidentally sprained her foot when she landed, although the teacher took care of her carefully and soaked her feet with secret Chinese medicine every day. During the official competition, there was a show that still made a mistake.
Screenshot of the documentary "Great Chinese Acrobatics"
Although another show won the gold medal, Li Ge was still somewhat disappointed. Winning the gold medal in the competition will open the door for her to the best art troupe in the country, and it will also gain financial security for herself and her family, and Li Ge hopes to continue to work hard.
Acrobatics is a form of performance that integrates sports and art, which requires actors to have superb skills, good physical fitness, rich expressiveness and creativity. Acrobatics has a long history and is an important part of Chinese culture, but the career of an acrobats is full of hardships and risks.
Many acrobats begin rigorous training at an early age, experiencing countless falls, injuries, bleeding, and enormous physical and psychological stress. They sacrifice normal learning, life and play, are separated from their families, and even face the risk of injury, illness and disability.
An acrobat: Compared with our peers, most of our youth is dedicated to the acrobatic career, lack of culture, and have no other skills, plus the pain accumulated in the body when we are young will accompany the second half of our lives. Not everyone can stay and continue to coach or logistics. I don't want to become a waste person of the body and then a waste of society.
03
Are miscellaneous skills a shortcut to changing your destiny?
Practicing acrobatics is an extremely difficult road for children, but for some children from poor families and acrobatic talent, if they can get the opportunity to professional training, it is undeniable that acrobatics will bring a ray of light to their lives.
There is such a little girl, her acrobatic videos have become popular on the Internet, with millions of fans. It was because of acrobatics that her fate changed.
Xiaoming was born in Daliangshan, Sichuan Province, and has an older sister, two of whom are orphans and fostered in their uncle's house. Because of poverty, the uncle was powerless and could not give the poor sisters a stable life. By chance, Principal Wang of the acrobatic school went to the local area to recruit acrobatic children.
My sister's age meets the admission requirements, but Bob is only 4 years old and does not meet the admission requirements. The uncle told Principal Wang about the predicament at home, and Principal Wang asked Xiaoming to do a few test actions under his guidance, but he did not expect Xiaoming to perform well. So, Principal Wang recruited Xiaoming to the school in an unconventional way.
Although Xiao Ming is young, he is very talented in acrobatics, and although he has not reached his age, under the guidance of Principal Wang, he began to practice acrobatics. Under diligent study and hard training, Xiaoming made rapid progress, and soon he could turn over 40 front bridges, do more than 200 small flips and step down in one go.
Principal Wang saw that Xiaoming was both powerful and willing to learn, so he opened an account for her on the Internet and posted her acrobatic videos on the Internet, but he did not expect to quickly gain a large number of fans, and even Phoenix Satellite TV had forwarded her videos. While fans sympathize with Xiaoming's life, they also praise her for her stunts at a young age.
Although fate did not love her as a child, she learned to persevere in acrobatics. In the big world, not all flowers grow in greenhouses, and there are grasses that are crumbling on the edge of the cliff but still grow into the sun.
As a little girl Xiaoming, maybe she doesn't want to become the "acrobatic genius" in people's mouths, she prefers to be a baby lying in her mother's arms. Although her fate is unfair, she encounters acrobatics, and it is the particularity of learning acrobatics that gives her the opportunity to change her fate.
Destiny is not an opportunity, but a choice. Miscellaneous skills are registered as intangible cultural heritage of history and art, and there must be a unique culture and charm in it. For traditional trades such as acrobatics, training starts with dolls, which is an extremely difficult road.
But we cannot deny that it is also an opportunity for children from some poor families. But fate is a variable, this variable needs to be created by the master of fate, and not every child who practices acrobatics can change fate.