As the ‘professional showcase section’ of the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, the 13th Shanghai International Magic Week will be held in Shanghai from 29 October to 3 November.
Since its founding, Shanghai International Magic Week has become a model and "benchmark" for magic in China and even in Asia, thanks to its world-class programme, its internationally aligned operating model, and its diverse, comprehensive design of performance and academic content. This edition is an entirely new starting point: it changes from once every two years to once a year, and while maintaining its professional standard it places greater emphasis on reaching the general public.
This edition of Shanghai International Magic Week will be held in Pudong for the first time, with the main venues for performances, lectures and exhibitions concentrated in the principal venue: the Pudong New Area Culture and Art Guidance Centre.
It is worth noting that this year the Magic Week adds a highlight closer to the general public — the "Magic Market" section. Running for five days, the Magic Market brings together magic stalls, magic transit stations and intangible cultural heritage in one place; its interactive experiences give more people the chance to understand magic deeply and come to love it.
The Magic Week has adopted a rotation system, focusing on "stage magic" one year and "close-up magic" the next, so as to ensure that each year's Magic Week brings performances that are both focused and richly varied.
This edition of Shanghai International Magic Week centres on "close-up magic" and covers five major sections: performances, competitions, academic events, public-welfare events, and the props exhibition together with the Magic Market. At the East Theatre and the Experimental Theatre inside the Pudong New Area Culture and Art Guidance Centre, three productions will be staged for a total of ten performances.
Two heavyweight competitions — the International Close-up Masters Invitational and the International Close-up Magic Newcomer Competition — bring together the world's top magicians and its rising talent for a collision of skills. The Newcomer Competition has drawn many outstanding entrants from China and abroad, among them young magicians as young as 12.
The jury for this competition is a stellar line-up of leading figures in the magic world, including jury chairman Bian Faji, vice-chairman Andrea Baioni, and several internationally renowned judges: Dominique Dante, Yu Yigang, Peter Din, Lu Chen and Dai Binchun.
Past editions of the Shanghai International Magic Week competitions have produced a large number of outstanding young magicians. Twenty-two years ago Lu Chen, then only 24, made his mark at the Shanghai International Magic Week, winning the silver award in the newcomer competition. Now grown into a master magician, Lu Chen returned to the Shanghai International Magic Week as a judge last year, and this year he has again been invited to serve on the jury.
In the performance section, the much-anticipated International Stage Magic Showcase will bring together top magicians from around the world. The close-up showcase is further divided into the International Close-up Magic Masters Showcase and the International Close-up Magic Elite Showcase, gathering masters and elite performers from across the globe. They include Laurent Piron of Belgium, FISM 2022 overall stage champion; Artem Shchukin of Russia, FISM 2022 champion in stage manipulation; and China's Hu Linglong, Cui Yan and Zhang Shuangjian, gold award winners at the 12th China Golden Chrysanthemum Award for Circus Arts in 2024. There are also top magicians from the United States, Finland, Italy, Brazil, South Korea and other countries.
In addition, the four-day professional props exhibition has invited 14 leading magic-prop exhibitors from China, Japan and South Korea, who will display the most advanced props and techniques. Seven lectures in a magic series will offer enthusiasts and professionals valuable opportunities to learn and exchange.
Beyond the main performance events, as a forerunner activity of the Shanghai Magic Week, the themed performances of "Rising Stars of the Magic City," a programme to cultivate Shanghai's new generation of magicians, will be given about 30 times in all across Shanghai. Chinese and foreign master magicians will also take part in the "Arts Sky" and other public-benefit performances at venues such as the Huangpu Lawn Music Square, the Putuo Children's Library, the Fengxian Sea Flower Youth Activity Centre, the Yangpu Xinjiangwan Culture and Art Centre and the Nanxun Ancient Town Theatre, bringing the art of magic into everyday life.
With nearly a hundred performances and events in all, this is the largest edition of the Shanghai International Magic Week, and the one with the most performances, since it began.
Alongside the intense competition, this Magic Week has also arranged a Pudong tour for the international jury; the judges will visit landmark cultural buildings in Pudong such as the Shanghai Tower, Shipyard 1862 and the "Riverside Pavilion" on the Lujiazui waterfront, touring Pudong and seeing Shanghai.
At the press briefing, Andrea Baioni, president of the world magic federation FISM, introduced a plan for the Shanghai International Magic Week to work jointly with FISM's Chinese social media accounts, so as to raise the influence and reach of the Shanghai International Magic Festival at home and abroad and together bring magic lovers worldwide a multi-dimensional, multi-layered artistic experience and interaction.
As a fixed brand project of the "professional showcase section" of the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, and one of the country's highest-ranking and highest-standard international magic week events, the Shanghai International Magic Week not only carries the weighty task of advancing magic nationwide but also aims to make Shanghai the summit stage for the art of magic worldwide.
This edition of the Magic Week is hosted by the Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, the China Acrobats Association, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Shanghai Media Group and the organizing committee office of the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, among others; it is organized by the Pudong New Area Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group Co., Ltd., the Shanghai Acrobats Association, the Shanghai Circus World, the Shanghai Circus School and the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, among others; and co-organized by the Pudong New Area Culture and Art Guidance Centre.