I just learned that Mandarin for circus is ma xi – horse drama. I quite like that. That goes back to the horse based shows of the early days of circus. There weren’t any horses at the show we went to see this week in Shanghai, but there were some excellent, very Chinese acts.
One of my favourite moments was when, one by one, FOUR girls appeared hands first out of a ceramic pot (that didn’t look big enough to hold any actual people), then proceeded to walk off stage upside down as it it was the most natural thing in the world. Which I suppose it was for them.
My other favourite act was one that featured motorcycles in a wall of death metal cage. Nothing new there you say- but I don’t mean one motorbike, I mean EIGHT motorbikes in a tiny cage. That registers as Chinese levels of insanity.