RuxianguliMagician · the Flying-Card Fairy

Ruxianguli Aibaidula is a Chinese magician and a National Class-A Performer, known across China as the Flying-Card Fairy for the card-throwing act she created.

She was born in Kashgar, Xinjiang. As a child she was selected for the Acrobatic Troupe of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and grew up in its training hall. Over ten years she worked through one discipline after another: balancing, juggling, trick cycling, lion dance, martial-arts routines. The fundamentals of traditional acrobatics gave her the most solid of groundings. She was a professionally trained acrobat.

The troupe had a senior magician, Zhang Yiming. She studied under him and served for years as his stage assistant; through those years of assisting she watched closely, learned attentively and trained diligently, earning his recognition and trust. As Zhang grew older and performed less, he entrusted his entire repertoire of mature magic acts to her, to carry forward and perform. She has always been modest, saying she merely inherited a master’s craft faithfully and reproduced his stage work; but an artist who has devoted a whole life to the stage does not lightly hand over its fruits. That trust was a judgment on her character, her skill and her stage discipline. And it was on that stage that she completed the passage from acrobat to magician, performing alone, facing the audience.

Of all the magic she studied, card throwing was the art she worked at hardest. To perfect it she trained with strict self-discipline, cutting plastic cards to the size of playing cards by hand as everyday practice props; palming, flicking, throwing, one move after another polished day upon day, until thick calluses sat permanently on her hands. That relentless work put her card throwing far beyond her peers: where most could throw two hundred or so cards in a single act, she could reliably throw more than four hundred, over distances of forty to fifty metres. She later took this routine to the national competition in Wuhan. People’s Daily Overseas Edition wrote of her performance: ‘graceful as a Tang-dynasty whirling dance, cards scattered like a goddess strewing flowers’ — Fu Qifeng. From then on the name ’the Flying-Card Fairy’ spread through the profession.

Once the name had spread, she did not stop at a single act. Beyond card throwing, what she wanted was a proper lineage; and the master she wished to follow was Fu Qifeng, who had written those words about Flying Cards. Fu Qifeng came from a family of magicians and was the representative inheritor of the Fu School of Illusion; she had served as head of research at the China Acrobats Association, deputy editor of Acrobatics and Magic, vice-president of the Beijing Literary and Art Critics Association, and a member of the Ministry of Culture’s expert committee on intangible cultural heritage. Fu lived in Beijing, so she travelled there again and again to call on her. Fu was cautious, and declined several times on the grounds of age: ‘I am getting old; I fear I could not do my duty by a student.’ She did not give up. On her last visit she carried a Xinjiang carpet on her shoulder; in her homeland a carpet is a weighty gift of hospitality and respect. That time, Fu Qifeng accepted her. A handwritten letter of acceptance, signed and sealed by master and disciple, survives to this day. From then on she moved beyond card throwing alone, studying systematically the techniques and creative ideas built up over a century by the Fu School, and her magic entered a structured phase.

It was also in these years that Nationalities Pictorial put her on its cover. In the photograph she wears atlas silk and an embroidered cap: a Uyghur girl from Kashgar, on the cover of a national magazine printed in several of China’s languages. She still keeps that issue. Later she took Flying Cards to Minneapolis, in the United States, for the convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. She spoke no English; happily, cards need no translation. Before an audience of magicians from around the world, a card-throwing routine woven with folk-dance steps said everything for her. It was also on Fu Qifeng’s recommendation that Happy Valley, the OCT park then under construction in Shenzhen, invited her to join as recruited talent. She moved south with her whole family, and another chapter began.

Happy Valley was still under construction when OCT Shenzhen travelled to Xinjiang and signed a contract with the regional acrobatic troupe: she was seconded south for a year, and afterwards settled in Shenzhen as recruited talent, appointed the park’s chief magician. Happy Valley was China’s first participatory theme park; once the Shenzhen park was established, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Wuhan followed, and it spread across the country. Her first work there was Happy MD, China’s first large-scale original magic gala. Until then magic had mostly been one item in a variety show; from this production on, magic had the scale of a full play — script and narrative, set design, lighting and sound, ensemble choreography, mechanical illusions, each department in its place, combining into a large-scale magic stage play with a cast of a hundred; one magician at centre stage, a whole company of performers and crew behind her. At Happy Valley, magic was theatre from the very start — and from then on a signature part of the park itself.

Over the next decade and more she led both creation and performance, one production after another: Dreamland Divine Comedy won the Special Award at the China Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition; Magic Rose, Light of Magic, Phantom Traces and Maya Goddess followed; then came the animated family magic play Illusion City. These productions ran in residence at the park’s Happy Theatre, one of them reaching a thousand performances in that same house. Her stage grew too, from cards at the fingertips to grand illusions — the vanishing sports car, the aircraft illusion, extreme escapes, the fire phoenix, the switch in plain sight, ten thousand spectators transformed at once — spectacles that set the benchmark of their day. The International Magicians Society awarded her its Merlin Award as Best Female Illusionist in China; she took Card Artistry to Monaco, performing in Monte Carlo as an invited international guest of the Monte-Carlo Magic Stars, her diploma signed by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco as president of the theatre.

She led the founding of the Happy Valley International Magic Festival: hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Acrobats Association and staged by Happy Valley, the first National Magic Competition opened together with the first festival, and two hundred and fifty magicians from more than ten countries gathered in the park. It has been held every year since, with a new theme each time, and magicians from the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany and Japan came one after another —Dean Gunnarson, ‘the world’s greatest escape artist’, staged a fifty-five-second life-or-death escape on the park’s mine train; from the United States,Brett Daniels, ‘the magician’s magician’,Danny Cole, ‘Platinum Award winner of the Academy of Magical Arts’, andJeff McBride, ‘judge of the first Happy Valley International Magic Competition’, took the stage in turn;Lu Chen, ‘the internationally renowned magician’, also performed close-up magic for visitors here. The festival was included in the first China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair and listed as one of Shenzhen’s cultural calling cards; the Asian Magic Association set up its headquarters at Happy Valley; FISM conferred a special honour on it, and its president Eric Eswin served as honorary chairman of the first Happy Valley International Magic Competition. At the festival marking Happy Valley’s tenth anniversary, champions from ten countries shared the stage, and the display boards placed her beside Brett Daniels, calling her ’the Queen of Oriental Magic’. At the curtain call she stood at the front of the stage, her fellow magicians from around the world behind her.

When Shenzhen bid for the 26th Summer Universiade, she travelled to Turin, Italy, to help make the case; the bid succeeded, and in the year the Games opened she carried the torch through the streets of Shenzhen. This city has a saying: ‘Once you arrive, you are a Shenzhener.’ The woman recruited south from Xinjiang lifted the city’s torch a decade and more later — Shenzhen had become her second home. In the year of the festival’s fifteenth edition, the China Acrobats Association, the Guangdong Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles each brought a plaque naming the park a ‘Magic Culture and Creative Industry Base’ — one national, one provincial, one municipal; the national plaque was the first of its kind in the country. From then on the park held competitions every year: young magicians contended here, and the China Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition settled here too.

From Italy,Erix Logan— resident guest of Hollywood’s Magic Castle and winner of Monte Carlo’s Golden Magic Wand — brought his full show into the park;Yan Jianrongopened a ‘Chinese Traditional Magic Academy’ here, teaching China’s own old craft. The judges’ bench has seated people from FISM and the Asian Magic Association; by its sixth edition the Happy Valley Cup brought magicians from Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Latvia and Thailand onto one stage. In those years two new categories appeared on the Golden Chrysanthemum roll: the ’Chinese Classical Magic Heritage Award’ and the ‘Chinese Magic Newcomer Award’. The ’Golden Magic Child’ youth competition also began here, bringing children learning magic from all over the country to Shenzhen. The festival was named one of the ‘Top Ten Festivals of International Influence’; nearly five hundred magicians from dozens of countries have taken its stage, and the park came to be called ’the Oriental Capital of Magic’.

I came to Shenzhen not to find a dream but to chase one — and I am still chasing it; the dream is not finished. I joined the acrobatic troupe at seven, turned to magic at eighteen, picked up my luggage and went south at twenty-eight, and have stood at Happy Valley for twenty-five years. When people ask about the road, all I can say is: my life has been like magic itself — hard to believe.

But a magician knows best that miracles are not conjured; they are practised. I came down from the stage, so I know how much one stage means to a performer. In meetings large and small, what I speak about is the hardship of my colleagues: many venues have been built, yet private troupes have nowhere to perform, and people who want to see a magic show or a play in the evening have nowhere to go. What I ask for is practical: give us venues, hold showcases, build the mechanisms, so that people in this trade have a stage to stand on.

In truth I have done only one thing all these years: given this craft a place to stand. I spend most of the year in classrooms; university magic societies have been founded one after another, and children learning magic keep growing up in waves; the provincial federation set up a studio bearing my name at Happy Valley, and the day I received the plaque my feelings were impossibly mixed — that plaque is heavy, and it placed the road ahead for this craft in my hands.

What remains to be done is the same thing. Write down the skills passed on by word and by hand, bring them into the classroom, build the stage for those younger than me. A show ends, but the craft must not break; people grow old, the art does not. The light on the stage is still on — I am keeping it.

1. 1990

   Best ‘Magic Card Throwing’ Award · 3rd National Acrobatics Competition · Northwest regional preliminary

2. 1991

   Outstanding Professional and Technical Worker · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

3. 1992

   Medal for the Development and Construction of Xinjiang · Autonomous Region Federation of Trade Unions · Advanced Worker

4. 1993

   Commendation, Autonomous Region Department of Culture · for the 1991 Golden Lion Award · Department of Culture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

5. 1993

   Deputy to the 8th National People’s Congress · elected from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region · original deputy’s credential

6. 1993

   Fu Qifeng’s Letter of Acceptance · proof of lineage · 4th generation of the Fu School of Illusion · signed and sealed by Fu Qifeng · 1993-03-06

7. 1993

   Autonomous Region Advanced Worker · Model Worker · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

8. 1993

   Autonomous Region Young and Middle-aged Expert of Outstanding Contribution · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

9. 1993

   Autonomous Region ‘Outstanding Youth’ · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

10. 1993

    Notable Figure in Culture and the Arts, Autonomous Region · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

11. 1995

    Nominee, 1st Xinjiang ‘Ten Outstanding Young People’ · nomination prize among 20 candidates · Autonomous Region Youth League Committee and ten other organisations

12. 1996

    Delegate to the National Congress of Literary and Art Circles · representing Xinjiang’s literary and art circles

13. 1997

    7th place, Stage Competition, 69th IBM Convention · International Brotherhood of Magicians · Minneapolis, USA · certificate

14. 1999

    International magic competition · International Silver Award · Hong Kong

15. 1999

    OCT · ‘Young Skilled Worker’, ’Advanced Individual’ · OCT Shenzhen · Happy Valley

16. 1999

    Shenzhen Advanced Employee · Shenzhen Municipality

17. 2000

    Golden Chrysanthemum Award · Special Award · 2nd National Magic Competition · Dreamland Divine Comedy · as chief creator and lead performer; also appointed a judge of the same competition

18. 2000

    Shenzhen Youth Achievement Medal · Shenzhen Committee of the Communist Youth League · Shenzhen Youth Federation

19. 2000

    Advanced Individual for Ethnic Unity and Progress · Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government

20. 2000

    Judge, Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition · 2nd edition · China Acrobats Association · letter of appointment

21. 2002

    Gold Award for Performance · ‘Shining with the Special Zone’ showcase by Shenzhen-based units · Work Committee for Shenzhen-based Units, CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee

22. 2006

    Magic Stars · certificate of honour · Monte-Carlo Magic Stars · invited guest · signed by Princess Stéphanie

23. 2007

    Advanced Worker, Universiade Bid · CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee · Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government

24. 2007

    Secretary-General of the Jury, Cross-Strait Four Regions University Students’ Magic Exchange Conference · Happy Valley Beijing · coordinator for four consecutive years, 2007–2010

25. 2007

    Beijing Olympic torchbearer selection · among the final 32 · Shenzhen division

26. 2011

    Torchbearer, Shenzhen Summer Universiade · 26th edition

27. 2011

    Judge, FISM Asian Championship of Magic · FISM Asia · judge’s credential

28. 2013

    Judge, Cross-Strait Four Regions University Students’ Magic Exchange Conference · 6th edition · original certificate in traditional characters

29. 2014

    Judge, Happy Valley Cup International Magic Competition · letter of appointment

30. 2014

    Delegate to the 6th Shenzhen Trade Union Congress · Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions

31. 2015

    Member, Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPPCC · 6th and 7th committees · culture and arts sector

32. 2016

    Delegate to the 10th CFLAC National Congress · Great Hall of the People, Beijing

33. 2016

    Judge, ‘Golden Magic Ring’ Youth Magic Exchange Conference · 1st Shenzhen (International) edition · alongside Dai Wuqi, Li Ning and Louis Yan

34. 2016

    Reviewing expert, Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan Magic Exchange Conference · a China National Arts Fund project

35. 2017

    Guangdong Young and Middle-aged Artist of Virtue and Artistry · 3rd cohort

36. 2018

    Judge, Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition · China Acrobats Association · letter from the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles

37. 2019

    President, Shenzhen Acrobats Association · an association under the municipal federation · named in the official list

38. 2021

    Delegate to the 11th CFLAC National Congress · Guangdong delegation · credential no. 0798

39. 2024

    Guangdong Master Artist · ‘Ruxianguli Studio’ · among the first plaques conferred by the Guangdong Federation of Literary and Art Circles

40. 2024

    Judge, annual professional assessment, Xinjiang Art Theatre · acrobatics panel · official letter of invitation

41. 2024

    Visiting expert, Acrobatic Troupe of Xinjiang Art Theatre (flexible talent programme in aid of Xinjiang) · 2nd cohort

42. 2025

    Jury, ‘Golden Magic Ring · Summit’ · 8th edition · panel of 8 · alongside Dai Wuqi, Li Ning and Lu Chen

1. 1990

   Best ‘Magic Card Throwing’ Award · 3rd National Acrobatics Competition · Northwest regional preliminary

2. 1991

   Outstanding Professional and Technical Worker · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

3. 1992

   Medal for the Development and Construction of Xinjiang · Autonomous Region Federation of Trade Unions · Advanced Worker

4. 1993

   Commendation, Autonomous Region Department of Culture · for the 1991 Golden Lion Award · Department of Culture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

5. 1993

   Deputy to the 8th National People’s Congress · elected from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region · original deputy’s credential

6. 1993

   Fu Qifeng’s Letter of Acceptance · proof of lineage · 4th generation of the Fu School of Illusion · signed and sealed by Fu Qifeng · 1993-03-06

7. 1993

   Autonomous Region Advanced Worker · Model Worker · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

8. 1993

   Autonomous Region Young and Middle-aged Expert of Outstanding Contribution · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

9. 1993

   Autonomous Region ‘Outstanding Youth’ · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

10. 1993

    Notable Figure in Culture and the Arts, Autonomous Region · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

11. 1995

    Nominee, 1st Xinjiang ‘Ten Outstanding Young People’ · nomination prize among 20 candidates · Autonomous Region Youth League Committee and ten other organisations

12. 1996

    Delegate to the National Congress of Literary and Art Circles · representing Xinjiang’s literary and art circles

13. 1997

    7th place, Stage Competition, 69th IBM Convention · International Brotherhood of Magicians · Minneapolis, USA · certificate

14. 1999

    International magic competition · International Silver Award · Hong Kong

15. 1999

    OCT · ‘Young Skilled Worker’, ’Advanced Individual’ · OCT Shenzhen · Happy Valley

16. 1999

    Shenzhen Advanced Employee · Shenzhen Municipality

17. 2000

    Golden Chrysanthemum Award · Special Award · 2nd National Magic Competition · Dreamland Divine Comedy · as chief creator and lead performer; also appointed a judge of the same competition

18. 2000

    Shenzhen Youth Achievement Medal · Shenzhen Committee of the Communist Youth League · Shenzhen Youth Federation

19. 2000

    Advanced Individual for Ethnic Unity and Progress · Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government

20. 2000

    Judge, Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition · 2nd edition · China Acrobats Association · letter of appointment

21. 2002

    Gold Award for Performance · ‘Shining with the Special Zone’ showcase by Shenzhen-based units · Work Committee for Shenzhen-based Units, CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee

22. 2006

    Magic Stars · certificate of honour · Monte-Carlo Magic Stars · invited guest · signed by Princess Stéphanie

23. 2007

    Advanced Worker, Universiade Bid · CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee · Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government

24. 2007

    Secretary-General of the Jury, Cross-Strait Four Regions University Students’ Magic Exchange Conference · Happy Valley Beijing · coordinator for four consecutive years, 2007–2010

25. 2007

    Beijing Olympic torchbearer selection · among the final 32 · Shenzhen division

26. 2011

    Torchbearer, Shenzhen Summer Universiade · 26th edition

27. 2011

    Judge, FISM Asian Championship of Magic · FISM Asia · judge’s credential

28. 2013

    Judge, Cross-Strait Four Regions University Students’ Magic Exchange Conference · 6th edition · original certificate in traditional characters

29. 2014

    Judge, Happy Valley Cup International Magic Competition · letter of appointment

30. 2014

    Delegate to the 6th Shenzhen Trade Union Congress · Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions

31. 2015

    Member, Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPPCC · 6th and 7th committees · culture and arts sector

32. 2016

    Delegate to the 10th CFLAC National Congress · Great Hall of the People, Beijing

33. 2016

    Judge, ‘Golden Magic Ring’ Youth Magic Exchange Conference · 1st Shenzhen (International) edition · alongside Dai Wuqi, Li Ning and Louis Yan

34. 2016

    Reviewing expert, Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan Magic Exchange Conference · a China National Arts Fund project

35. 2017

    Guangdong Young and Middle-aged Artist of Virtue and Artistry · 3rd cohort

36. 2018

    Judge, Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition · China Acrobats Association · letter from the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles

37. 2019

    President, Shenzhen Acrobats Association · an association under the municipal federation · named in the official list

38. 2021

    Delegate to the 11th CFLAC National Congress · Guangdong delegation · credential no. 0798

39. 2024

    Guangdong Master Artist · ‘Ruxianguli Studio’ · among the first plaques conferred by the Guangdong Federation of Literary and Art Circles

40. 2024

    Judge, annual professional assessment, Xinjiang Art Theatre · acrobatics panel · official letter of invitation

41. 2024

    Visiting expert, Acrobatic Troupe of Xinjiang Art Theatre (flexible talent programme in aid of Xinjiang) · 2nd cohort

42. 2025

    Jury, ‘Golden Magic Ring · Summit’ · 8th edition · panel of 8 · alongside Dai Wuqi, Li Ning and Lu Chen