Guo Shutong carefully lifts a white mouse out of an antique wooden box. He places the tiny animal on a large platform, upon which he has constructed a miniature Disney Land.

Guo Shutong with his five mice at Wuqiao County's Acrobatic and Circus World.

A large spinning wheel rises from the solid wooden frame. On its shelf rests a hollow plastic watermelon. Around the frame sits a temple, a bridge and a pagoda. There is even a railway track circumventing the platform.

"Li Sanniang, go draw water!" Guo commands in his thick Wuqiao dialect, as he puts one hand beside his mouth and, like a wizard conjuring a spell, points a wand at the mouse.

The drowsy creature instantly becomes animated upon hearing its orders. Performing the role of folktale character "Li Sanniang", it climbs up to a rope and staggers over a ladder and to finally reach the well. It pokes its head in and is about to pull out the bucket, when it loses its balance and tumbles down the rope.

"Well, well, the previous trek must have cost you too much energy. You need more practice. But never mind, take a rest," Guo says, as he puts the mouse back in the box.

The performance at Wuqiao's Grand Acrobatic World amuses juries and acrobatic troupes from 15 countries attending the 11th Wuqiao International Circus Festival, which just ended in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province this week. Although many of them couldn't understand Guo's clever quips, they were still thrilled by the show.

It is said that the earliest record of acrobatics in today's Wuqiao County, known as the "cradle of Chinese acrobatics", can be traced back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 420-589).

"Local residents, having long suffered in destitution, started to earn their livings through juggling and acrobatics. Because they were located along an ancient canal, the practice thrived as people perfected their techniques to better entertain merchants passing by," says Bian Faji, vice-chairman of the China Acrobats Association.

Wandering performers helped gradually spread the acrobatic tradition of Wuqiao across the country and abroad. Today, Wuqiao acrobatics still exert an indispensable influence on the acrobatics circles of China and the world.

According to Yang Hongzhi, head of the Culture Bureau of Wuqiao County, the area is the origin of more than 60 acrobatic troupes - most of which are privately owned - that perform throughout China and the world year-round.

For visitors to the hometown of acrobatics, the Grand Acrobatic World is a must-see. Opened in 1993, the spot has been hailed as an acrobatics circus in which the curtain never goes down. This reputation stands not only because it presents a variety of shows, but also because it has recruited a who's-who of veteran performers.

Their stunts may not be as breathtaking as the spectacular productions of bigger troupes that tour for big bucks. But they deserve respect for their lifetime commitment to preserving the best of Wuqiao's tradition.

Performer Guo Shutong, 34, worked as an electrician in his early years at the Grand Acrobatic World. He was amazed by the mice-training performance of Zhang Fenglou, who was then a famous acrobat. So in 1993, he began studying under Zhang.

Today, he makes the training look easy, but he says the animals are actually very difficult to tame.

"We start to train a mouse when it is just beyond one-month-old. At first, they don't listen to my orders, and they bite, leaving cuts and scars all over my hands," Guo says. "The job requires great patience. Usually, it takes us several months to train for one act. But once the mice know how to do it, they will quickly memorize their roles."

Guo treats the mice as if they were his children. When he performs in other places, he would call home every day to make sure that the mice are fed on time and well cared for. "I've never dumped the elderly mice once they're too old to perform. I will keep them until they die and bury them," he says.

He adds that the most difficult part of honing his craft is developing his monologue to go with his mice's performances. "A good monologue first requires a rich base of tales and legends. Then, you should complement the storytelling with your expressions and guide the mice in a harmonious manner, which requires a lot of offstage practice. It took me about a year to remember the lines and overcome my shyness to speak in public," he says.

Wang Baohe shows off his incredible hand tricks to foreign performers.

In the past, the performance of small, trained animals - a show also called a "mini-circus" - was one of the eight grotesque stunts of Beijing's Tianqiao Fair. But the tradition has become overshadowed by other acrobatic forms and is fading away.

Guo has dedicated himself to renovating the show. He constantly creates new sets, such as one featuring the Beijing Olympics mascots, the fuwa, and incorporates new phrases and current affairs into his monologue to enhance the connection with audiences.

But he hasn't been able to reinvent his thick Wuqiao accent, which boosts the dramatic effect but sounds like a foreign language to people from South China. "I can perform in Mandarin. But it would be much less fun, and there are many phrases in the dialect for which we can't find a Mandarin equivalent," he says.

But for Wang Baohe, the challenges extend beyond linguistics. In a courtyard not far from Guo's stall, named Gui Shou Ju, or The Residence of Tricky Hands, 63-year-old Wang demonstrates exactly how quick his hands, and how untrustworthy viewers' eyes, can be.

The trick appears to be simple. He places two balls under an upside-down bowl on the desk. Then, he puts another ball under another bowl and shuffles the bowls. Then, he asks the audience how many balls are under each bowl. Without fail, the audience consistently guesses incorrectly. They try again and again, but every time, the magician lifts the bowls and prove them wrong.

Wang was born into an acrobatic family. At the age of 6, he started to perform at the Tianqiao Fair with his father and grandfather. He began with juggling and tightrope walking, and didn't take up hand tricks as his career until his 30s.

Like many street performers from Wuqiao, Wang lived in destitution and instability. For him, the turning point came in 1992, when his "hand trick" surprised a group of provincial government officials who were the first visitors to the Grand Acrobatic World when it was still under construction. Since then, Wang has toured the country and performed abroad, garnishing a slew of prizes along the way.

After seeing his performance in Hong Kong in 1999, former Hong Kong SAR chief executive Tung Chee-hwa affectionately dubbed him "Gui Shou", or "Tricky Hands". This year, Wang was designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage inheritor as the only representative of Wuqiao's long-standing acrobatic legacy.

"Chinese acrobatic programs have now caught up with the world. We have incorporated more cultural and artistic elements, such as dance, music and costumes, into the show," he says. "It is a great step forward. But, on the other hand, I realize that many young acrobats do not pay as much attention to solidifying their basic skills as we elder performers did. I don't think the adoption of advanced multimedia can replace the spirit of pursuing artistic perfection."

(China Daily November 9, 2007)