Master magician Hu Linglong, heritage inheritor of ‘traditional magic · Gucai Xifa’
"Dreammaker: Secret Realm," a new magic variety drama produced by the China National Acrobatic Troupe and one of the programmes of the first "Great Theatre in Beijing" showcase season, gave a successful premiere at the National Center for Local Opera Performance on December 31, 2022. Hu Linglong (legal name Hu Bo), the show's magic director and leading performer, won the audience's affection and recognition with his consummate acting. Through years of continuous practice and study, Hu Linglong has brought together the writing, design, production and performance of magic drama in one person; he is an all-round magician and one of the finest of China's new generation of young magicians.
Hu Linglong was born in Wuqiao, China's home of acrobatics, and is a fourth-generation inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of traditional magic, Gucai Xifa. He is currently a member of the Magic Art Committee of the China Acrobats Association, a director of the Guangdong Acrobats Association and vice-chairman of the Longhua Acrobats Association of Shenzhen. In May 2021 he won first place with the Gold Award at the 11th China Golden Chrysanthemum Award National Magic Competition.
Born into a family of acrobats
Wuqiao acrobatics is a traditional folk acrobatic art of Hebei Province, known throughout the world; in 2006 it was placed by the State Council on the first national list of intangible cultural heritage. On June 5, 2007, the Ministry of Culture confirmed Wang Baohe, the "Ghost Hand" of Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, as a representative inheritor of this heritage item, and he was included in the first list of 226 representative inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage items; Hu Linglong was also among the inheritors on that list.
Hu Linglong grew up steeped in his family's and the region's acrobatic culture. Years of performing not only built his confidence on stage but let him see how deeply people all over the country love and seek out "China's intangible cultural heritage," and this laid the ground for his later ambitions. He therefore resolved to carry China's "traditional magic, Gucai Xifa" forward, and to inherit and develop China's traditional magic culture.
Hu Linglong often says: to carry China's traditional magic culture forward, one must create better acts. In 2003 Hu Linglong and his partner An Na (legal name An Yanyan) began researching and creating magic acts. Based on the Western film "Hamlet," they created China's first magic-drama version of a prince and princess — "Temptation of the Elf" — and went on to create "Cardboard Box Illusion," "Guzheng Encounter," "Magic Bird Show," "An Na's Card Artistry," "The Sword" and other works, taking part in recordings for many provincial satellite channels and for CCTV-1, CCTV-3, CCTV-4, CCTV-7 and other programmes, much loved by audiences. Their original work "Forest Fantasy," built on the idea of "harmonious coexistence between people and nature," won the Gold Award at the 3rd Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan Magic Festival and received first-class support granted by the state Bureau of Arts.
New magic, new breakthroughs
Wuqiao acrobatics has the longest history, and its performers are found all over the country. In the past, Wuqiao's acrobats wandered from place to place to make a living, working hard, and what they left behind was the hardship and tears of starting out. To this day, Wuqiao's acrobats keep working diligently, using their wits, raising their skills and moving with the times. On "new magic," Hu Linglong says that as society develops, innovation in magic is indispensable: "new magic" highlights the "new, the surprising and the distinctive," and a work must be rich in content and varied. Different artistic elements must be combined organically, and new ideas must be merged with stage lighting, stage design and modern imaging technology, so that audiences see something fresh — and this sets a higher bar for those who work in the art of magic. To bring audiences better and more exciting shows, one has to keep studying quietly, keep creating new works, and accept the judgement of audiences and experts and the test of the market.
In 2020 the large-scale inspirational magic drama "Dream" premiered at the Guohua Film and Television Base in Beijing. Set against the growing up of a boy from the countryside, it tells an inspiring story of a young person of today striving on for an ideal. Many young people are unwilling to let their lives be fixed so easily; they want a brighter, better future, and want to spread more joy and positive energy to more people. The piece is based on the magician's own experience, blended with the fine artistic methods of the creative team, carefully wrought and perfectly presented. "Dream" carries a healthy, inspiring theme, the essence of the art of magic from all times and places, and a romantic, beautiful story.
"Dream" uses the form of magic to present a refreshing artistic style. Its protagonist is ordinary and small but comes from real life; born at the bottom of society, he still has a goal of striving upward. It restores the true colour of real life and gives people mired in ordinary trivialities a positive drive to live. "Keep working, always believe" conveys a perseverance forgotten in today's restless life, a devotion to an ideal, and it gives great encouragement.
In early 2022 the magic drama "Magic & Voice," a collaboration between the magician Hu Linglong and the China National Acrobatic Troupe, was formally launched, offered on the eve of the Party's 20th National Congress as a gift from the capital's arts workers to that congress. Hu Linglong reworked and upgraded the version of "Magic & Voice" premiered in Beijing and began a national Poly tour in 2022. In content, on a foundation of magic, vocal mimicry and acrobatics, elements of drama and dance were creatively brought in, along with comic interactive designs that children love; a well-reasoned arrangement made it fit better the viewing habits, tastes and experience of young audiences in different regions. It worked well on the later legs of the tour, drew unanimous praise from audiences, and broke a 95% attendance rate across the Poly theatre circuit.
On December 31, 2022 came "Dreammaker: Secret Realm," a programme of the first "Great Theatre in Beijing" showcase season co-organized by the Beijing Performance & Arts Group. The theme "Secret Realm" comes from the magic act "Secret Realm" starring Hu Linglong and An Na, which won first place with the Gold Award at the "Golden Chrysanthemum Award," the highest honour in the Chinese magic profession. The new drama achieves upgrading and fusion on many dimensions in content, structure and artistic elements, creating an experience that is varied without being disorderly and a fresh delight for the eyes and ears. In this artistic banquet, besides the unique appeal of many kinds of art colliding with one another, audiences will also follow the development of the plot and the changing feelings of the characters, and take from the work the insight that "a full life is real experience."
Inheriting and carrying forward Chinese traditional magic, telling China's story well.
With its matchless skill, its rich and varied layers of traditional acts and its distinctive national style, Chinese traditional magic is admired and loved by audiences at home and abroad.
As a creator and performer of magic who came out of Wuqiao, carrying an innate temperament and grounding, and as a fourth-generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, Hu Linglong bears more of a mission and a responsibility: telling China's story well through "magic" is both a duty to the development of Chinese traditional culture and the charge and hope entrusted to him by the inheritors in his family. Born in the 1980s, he has witnessed China's rapid development under reform and opening up, and his life holds both the fine traditional magic culture of the older generation and the inheriting and developing elements of a new generation of inheritors.
The history of traditional magic is a portrait of traditional artists pursuing their ideals in life, a glorious record of how Hu Linglong and many other craftsmen made their own way, and at the same time a microcosm of the development of Chinese folk culture. Hu Linglong says that for various reasons some traditional folk cultures are now on the brink of extinction and urgently need rescue, protection and excavation. As a precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, "traditional magic" needs to be passed down and carried forward generation after generation. In the future he will go on creating more fine works of art to give back to society, work to create the best works of the age, and spread China's story to every part of the world and to millions of homes across the country!