It was during the Han Dynasty, more than two thousand years ago, that the Chinese saw the first acrobats, magicians, and jugglers. Acrobatics, with amazing skill of strength and impossible balance, developed out of the annual village harvest celebrations. Chinese farmers and village craftsmen, with relatively little to do over the long winter decided to spend their time improving their societal positions by becoming acrobats. They practiced the art form with just about anything they could find around the house and farm. . . cups, saucers, tables, chairs, plates . . . Even their own bodies, with which they formed human walls and pyramids. Every year in the fall the village's peasants would join in the village to share in a celebration of a bountiful harvest . . .a sort of Chinese Thanksgiving. It was at this time that the common people would show off their skills by performing fun and exciting feats of daring and strength using household tools and common items found around the farm and workshop. Building on the traditional performances, today's artists have added new techniques and spectacular stunts thrilling audiences around the globe. Highly skilled, rigorously trained, and superbly talented, these performers follow an unbroken tradition since 700 BC.
Chinese Acrobatic Skills Hoop diving has its origins during the harvest time when the field workers used a tool shaped like a large tambourine. These large hoops with a woven mesh bottom were used to shake and divide the grain from the leaves and stems. It became a tradition to challenge each other to see who could dive through these hoops and to see how many or how tall a stack could they dive through.

Similarly, the pottery maker would learn to juggle and spin his wares. Spinning a pot to make it uniformly round and smooth is a natural action of the potter. However, when he adds to this a few tricks of juggling and tossing high into the air, he becomes a local hero performing a thrilling feat.
Climbing to the top of a tall stack of chairs. . . the spinning of plates on the end of a long bamboo stick . . . balancing small wooden benches on the head . . . flipping bowls with your feet . . climbing tall poses and long leather straps . . . these and most other traditional Chinese acrobatic acts derived from the lifelong skills of the village peasant, river sailor and local craftsman.

Children learned skills from their fathers and grandfathers before they were of school age. The tradition of Chinese acrobatics is therefore one which has been passed down from generation to generation to become the feats of strength, balance and grace that comprise this unique tradition of China. Like traveling European gypsies, the great acrobatic families of China would entertain the city rulers and the village people at ceremonial carnivals and public theaters. Today there remain only a few brothers and sisters of the famous old acrobatic families. They have now organized China's traditional entertainments into professional acrobatic troupes with formal academies for training young promising entertainers and internationally award winning performing companies. Still today China has an annual competition for the acrobatic academies. Acrobats representing troupes from all over the nation compete once a year to see who will win the all important Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions.
skill of "Qi Gong" or "spirits from air", a semi - religious study of the form of breathing and movement is very important to acrobatics. Qi Gong teaches one to use the mind and body together in perfect harmony with each other. While a thorough knowledge of Qi Gong is not a requisite for acrobats performing with modern-day circuses, the tradition of Qi Gong has roots in a 2000-year tradition that began in China. All early acrobats were well founded in the tradition of Qi Gong. The incredible performances are much like the acts first put on for Chinese emperors and royalty for the last 2000 years.