People normally associate the term "air man" with the famous NBA superstar Air Jordan. However, the flying trapeze acrobats of the Zhejiang Arts Troupe are China's very own "flying men" and "flying women."
As the famous saying goes, one minute of performance on the stage requires 10 years of hard practice off.
At six o'clock in the morning, when most people are still tucked up in their beds, the alarm clock wakes up 15-year-old Ye Yi. As the head of the student acrobatics team, she arrives first at the gymnasium to start the day's intense training.
For the performers of "Silk Melody," the troupe's repertoire for air acrobatics, every single movement on the stage has to be thoroughly mastered. The skilled performance seen by the audience requires arduous training.
It has become a daily routine for the students to warm up with leg exercises and stretching. Sweat, tears and sometimes even blood result from the hard training. They have to repeat the same movement hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of times from morning until night.
Ye is the youngest "flying woman." But, compared with her much younger teammates, she is undoubtedly the elder sister, as she has already been there for six years. Her teammates remind her of what she was like all those years ago - inexperienced, at a loss as to what to do, and easy to upset, but also persistent in training. She always tries to help her younger colleagues.
Although her coaches are not as strict with Ye as with other teammates, she forces herself to perform movements as difficult as those of the male students.
Trying to improve her movement till her ankles ache, she would sometimes feel exhausted and on the verge of crying. After wiping away the tears, the first thing she always does would be to tie up her silk ribbon again and have another try. After a whole day's training, she is always worn out.
Like other teenage girls, Ye also likes to dream. She wants to be an outstanding acrobatics coach and takes dazzling Chinese acrobatics all over the world.
However, Ye is also a very practical girl. In her spare time she also studies English.
Six years ago, she was not clear what it meant when teachers from the acrobatics troupe chose her out of other girls. Now, she firmly believes that their choice was correct and intends to prove them right.
(China Daily December 20, 2002)
