Master artists on campus: the magical world of Ruxianguli
Is magic sorcery, or sleight of hand? Magician Ruxianguli: magic is an art of intelligence and honesty.
Watching a magic show, the audience is always astonished by the magician's uncanny sleight of hand and the magical effects of the act, puzzling in vain over how it is done — an experience of wonder and surprise.
On the afternoon of 26 October, the children of Shenzhen Foreign Languages School were in luck: master magician Ruxianguli came with her disciples to the senior high division of the school's Yantian campus and gave a talk in the basement auditorium titled "How to Do Magic with Everyday Objects."
Ruxianguli is a Uyghur from Xinjiang, known as the "Fairy Queen of Magic." She is a member of the International Association of Magic Artists, a standing member of the China Magic Committee, a National Class-A Performer (the highest professional rank for performers in China), and an expert receiving a State Council government allowance.
The whole talk at the school was strung together with a dozen or more tricks: a small coin, a silk scarf, a newspaper, a glass, a handkerchief and other everyday objects all turned into enchanting magic in Ruxianguli's hands, and the explanations that followed were even more eye-opening and left everyone itching to try. There was also basic knowledge of categories such as social magic, close-up magic and therapeutic magic, and of the contribution made to world magic by the "four great inventions" of traditional Chinese magic — sword, cinnabar, bean and ring — giving the students a glimpse of how vast and deep the world of magic is.
One talk left us admiring the magician's consummate sleight of hand, her artistic gift for "saying one thing while doing another," and her polished stage presence. As the saying goes, "one minute on stage takes ten years of work off it" — and it is no lie.
Ruxianguli also brought thirty copies of her book "Ruxian's Happy Magic" and gave them out afterwards to interested students; it contains illustrated performances and technical explanations for more than thirty tricks.
Ruxianguli's talk was part of "Go Among the People," a Shenzhen master artists in residence on campus programme organised by the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the second fine-arts-on-campus event held by the senior high division this term. The event was hosted by teacher Zhang Yitian.