2 posts tagged “chinese”

Press Release:

Dan Chan has secretly acquired a priceless three century old National Chinese Treasure: Bian Lian. In January of 2009, Dan moved to Asia to learn this secretive art form from a Bian Lian Master who chose to train only Chan. After studying day and night for what seemed like a decade – he’d mastered the 300 second living presentation art. 

Biàn Liǎn; literally "Face-Changing" is an ancient Chinese dramatic art, where Chan is adorned in brightly colored costumes, moving to quick, dramatic music, while flourishing his arms and head–His vividly colored face (masks) changes miraculously in the blink of an eye over and over again--you must experience Chan to believe these transformations possible.

Witness Chan performing at exclusive Bay Area society and Corporate Events Internationally. Chan is referred to as the “Billionaire Magician” (having performed for 187 billionaires to date), is often featured at events for Yahoo, Google, George Lucas, John Madden and Hollywood’s exclusive Magic Castle. Chan will present and preserve this secret Chinese art form for the rest of his life.

You can also check out the movie title "The King of Masks" to see a great movie made about Bian Lian.

The streets of 1930’s Sichuan province set the stage for this award-winning tale of hope and transformation in the face of poverty and loneliness. As a rare master of an ancient art, the skills of “The King of Masks” are sought out by even the most beloved star of the esteemed Chinese Opera. But tradition dictates that the aging master’s trade only be passed on to a male heir. Desperate for his art to survive, “The King of Masks” finds an apprentice in a destitute child purchased on the black market. When the child reveals an unexpected secret, their relationship is suddenly tested by both the old man’s stubborn sense of tradition and the established customs of China.

As a performer, I make every effort to catch live performances whenever I can. I've probably seen over one hundred live shows over the last 9 years. During Thanksgiving 2004, I had the opportunity to travel to China with my family. We purchased a package including airfare from SF, lodging for seven days, and food for under $900. During this trip we saw on amazing acrobatic act in in Beijing.  Pictured above is my favorite act from the show.

In November of 2006, I had another opportunity to visit China again. This time we visited, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Xian. The purpose of this trip was to watch the "The Seventh Wuhan Optics Valley International Acrobatic Art Festival of China". When we were presented our badges for the festival we tags had Guest of Honor labeled on them. My master trainer Lu Yi is highly respected in America's circus circle and now I found out that he is famous in China  as well. Below is a picture of two people training. They two held this pose for over 45 minutes!
Next we traveled to a school in Nanjing and saw this girl do 200 handstand pushups in the period of 20 minutes with out touching the floor.

Here's a video of some of the mad skills we saw. The first video is of children training at Shanghai and Nanjing Circus Schools. The next video are highlights from the Wuhan Acrobatic Festival.