A Strong Motherland Needs the Joint Effort of Brothers and Sisters of Every Ethnic Group
When the national conference to commend ethnic unity and progress opened in Beijing in September this year, Ruxianguli — holder of the title of National Model Individual for Ethnic Unity and Progress and Vice-President of the Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development — was leading a Shenzhen arts troupe on a cultural and artistic exchange visit to Latin American countries, one of the activities she takes part in every year, using art to build a bridge for cultural exchange between China and other countries. When the news reached her, Ruxianguli said with feeling: "I am grateful to my country! I am grateful for reform and opening up! I thank the city of Shenzhen for letting brothers and sisters of every ethnic group — of different customs, different professions, different ethnicities, different provinces and different cultural backgrounds — come together here and strive together, shining on this fertile ground of reform and opening up."
An artist celebrated at home and abroad, Ruxianguli holds a number of posts: assistant artistic director of the OCT Happy Valley Shenzhen tourism company, Vice-President of the Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development, and President of the Shenzhen Acrobats Association. Whatever the role, in study, in life and at work Ruxianguli is conscientious and devoted. She volunteers in communities to run publicity and education activities on ethnic unity, promoting contact, exchange and integration among ethnic groups and contributing to a stronger sense of community for the Chinese nation. She takes an active part in "Belt and Road" cultural programmes, performing abroad many times and travelling across five continents so that people in countries and regions along the Belt and Road can know Chinese culture better and more fully. Skilled in her craft, she has won 43 awards internationally and in China, including 11 major international prizes and awards at provincial level or above, bringing honour to her country and helping Chinese culture reach the world.
As a magician, she has brought honour to her country
"I did not come to Shenzhen to look for a dream, but to chase one." By coincidence, Ruxianguli switched from acrobatics to magic at the age of 18, and through unremitting effort and exceptional talent she grew within little more than a decade into a National Class-A magician, becoming one of the country's leading magicians at just 28. It was precisely because of her many achievements in magic that in 1998 the Happy Valley Shenzhen tourism company, then still being set up, held out an olive branch to her, hoping she would bring the charm of magic to Happy Valley.
In the Shenzhen of the 1990s people knew little about magic, and it was Ruxianguli and her team who gradually changed that. At Happy Valley, the country's first large-scale magic production, starring Ruxianguli, not only kindled public interest in magic and raised the park's profile, playing an active part in popularizing and developing the art, but also trained a large number of nationally renowned magicians such as Fu Yandong, Lu Chen, Li Ning, Xin Yafei and Dai Binchun.
This also took Ruxianguli onto larger stages. She has won major prizes many times in magic competitions at home and abroad, and the large-scale magic gala she created and staged, Dreamland Divine Comedy, received the Special Award of the Golden Chrysanthemum Award presented by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. In 2006, at the invitation of the ruler of Monaco, she took part in the highest international gathering of magic — the 21st Monte-Carlo International Magic Grand Prix in Monaco — and won the Magic Star Award. Driven by Ruxianguli, the art of magic has blossomed across Shenzhen: the China Magic Culture and Creative Industry Base was established in the city, the first "magic school" was opened at Happy Valley Shenzhen, a magic club was founded at Shenzhen University, and magic has entered the city's schools, community neighbourhoods, enterprises, army barracks and homes for the elderly, reaching thousands of households.
As a member of an ethnic minority, she actively promotes ethnic culture
In August this year the "Ethnic Unity, One Family" community event organized by the United Front Work Department of the Nanshan District Committee was held in Shahe Subdistrict. Ruxianguli performed several magic routines there, and the shows let residents feel not only the charm of magic but also the many talents of their fellow citizens from every ethnic group.
As Vice-President of the Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development, Ruxianguli goes every year into subdistricts, campuses and enterprises to give goodwill performances, and volunteers in communities to run publicity and education activities on ethnic unity, using varied cultural and artistic forms to promote the spirit of the Party's 19th National Congress, fostering contact, exchange and integration among ethnic groups and contributing to a stronger sense of community for the Chinese nation.
It is worth noting that the nature of her work often puts Ruxianguli on public stages, at meetings and in the media, and on every such occasion she wears her ethnic costume and insists on weaving in ethnic elements. "Much of the time I represent not just myself but a member of the great family of the Chinese nation," she says. "I want to use my actions to show everyone the charm of the magic art of the Chinese nation." In her ethnic dress Ruxianguli always performs with radiance, and audiences abroad praise her too, saying the magician from China "conveys the depth of Chinese culture in her every movement".
As a Communist Party member, she has always kept art rooted at the grassroots
"I was born at the Party School of the CPC Kashgar Prefectural Committee. My father was a teacher there and a long-standing Party member. In the school compound I met teachers like my father every day; you could say I was bathed in red genes from childhood." In September this year, Shenzhen's united front held a session for sharing model deeds under the themed education campaign "Stay True to the Founding Mission", which was also the second session of the 2019 "Tongxin Forum", in the auditorium of the Municipal Party School. Ruxianguli, an outstanding representative of the city's ethnic minorities, shared her story there, and her account of her father and the founding aspiration of Communists moved many in the audience.
Ruxianguli recalled that when she was recruited into the Xinjiang Acrobatic Troupe at the age of seven, her father, mother, sisters and brothers saw her off, and her father said to her: "Study hard with your teachers, listen to your ama (teacher). Your father is a teacher too — don't bring shame on him." Whenever the young Ruxianguli ran into difficulties in life, in study or at work, she would think of her father's words.
Ruxianguli joined the Communist Party of China at 23. On the day her application was approved she telephoned her father; for a long, long while there was no sound at the other end, and then, choking back tears, he said to her: "Now that you have all joined the Party, I have no regrets left. But let me tell you this: once you are in the Party you must be loyal to it, serve society and the people well, and not count personal gains and losses. From now on don't worry about the family — even if you gave me a mountain of gold, it would mean less than your doing good work for the Party and for the people."
In her more than 20 years in the Party, Ruxianguli has kept her father's teaching in mind, maintained the standards expected of a Communist working in grassroots arts and culture, set an example, and put into practice the Party's principle that art should be rooted in and serve the grassroots. She spends two-thirds of every year teaching at the grassroots — training students, organizing competitions, building bases and spreading the art of magic. "The way I see myself," she says, "I am first a magic performer; only after doing that job well am I a magic teacher and a communicator of culture."
Ruxianguli is now approaching 50 and has been working for more than 40 years, yet she still gives voluntary performances, serves the grassroots and works for the cause of ethnic unity and progress. She often says: "Fifty-six ethnic groups live across our country's 9.6 million square kilometres. We are all brothers and sisters, and ethnic unity benefits the nation and its people alike. The unity of the motherland, its harmony, its prosperity and its strength all need the joint effort and joint struggle of brothers and sisters of every ethnic group."