"Wuqiao acrobatic art has become a cultural ambassador of China, and every Chinese should be proud of it," said Eduardo Murillo, president of the US-based World Talent Inc. on Sunday.

Murillo made the comments after watching the great circus show of the 8th China Wuqiao International Circus Festival (CWICF) at the well-decorated Hebei Provincial Art Center.

As a jury member of the 8th CWICF and a popular acrobatics expert, Murillo has served for 13 times as the general director of international circus festivals in France, Germany, Russia and other places.

"The 8th CWICF has provided a good chance to foster traditional Chinese culture and to enhance international acrobatic arts exchanges," Murillo said.

According to Murillo, Chinese circus has a very long history and is an excellent cultural legacy of the Chinese nation, and the acrobatic art of Wuqiao is enjoying increasing popularity in the world.

“Artists from Quqian are now working in many acrobatic troupes of more than 20 countries, and they spread the Chinese culture to almost everywhere in the world,” Murillo added. Meanwhile, he highly praised the festival as among the best in the world and the troupe kept improving its skills. The improvements were made in the use of new lighting and acoustic effect, new technology and new costumes, in addition to hard practice.

"The first acrobatic artists came from China 3,000 years ago, which is a proud achievement of every Chinese, and it is indeed a moral obligation for Chinese to support the art," said Murillo.

Besides some 25 acrobatics performances and 12 magic shows, a large-scale magic competition will be held for the first time during the 8th CWICF festival. Vying for prizes will be artistic troupes from Chinese mainland, the United States, France, Canada and Hong Kong.

So far, this well-known festival has attracted many overseas and domestic media. The State TV Station of Italy has bought the right to broadcast the entire festival to Europe at a cost of US$60,000, marking a breakthrough for the prestigious acrobatic event to enter the European mass media market. At the same time, the business-oriented activities such as the economic and trade talks have achieved 3,000 cooperative projects and attracted about 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) investment.

The festival was named after Wuqiao County in the southeast of Hebei Province which is known as the "home of acrobats."

(China.org.cn edited by Feng Shu, October 29, 2001)