Chen Jian’s Acrobatic Life

Text by Rong Yu

Photos by Song Zhentao

There is always exciting magic and acrobatics at the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Magic is something you know is not real, but it looks real, while acrobatics you know is real, but you wonder how it could be.

To make the impossible possible is the lifelong goal of many acrobatic performers including Chen Jian, deputy general manager of Wuhan Acrobatic Art Co., Ltd.

Chen Jian, aged forty-two, has been performing in the acrobatic world for more than 30 years. Flying in the air like a bird is his daily work, and almost every part of his body has been injured. Chen Jian starred in theHero between Heaven and Earth,Big Springboard,Pirates, and other highly challenging acrobatic programs, for which he has won numerous prestigious awards, gaining honor for the Wuhan acrobatics community.

On July 14, Chen Jian told us about his lifelong love of acrobatics at the Wuhan Acrobatic Hall, which is located on Taipei Road in Wuhan.

He loved sports and learned martial arts in his childhood. When he was in the third year of primary school, the acrobatic coach went to his school to recruit trainees. He was very interested and passed the examination, so he was admitted.

Although his parents knew that learning acrobatics was a tough job, they knew that it would instill a work ethic for him in doing everything in the world, so they chose to support him. The teacher took a look at his bones and asked him to do some simple training movements. He could persist, while other kids couldn’t stand it and quit.

Acrobat Chen Jian 杂技人陈健

每年的CCTV春节联欢晚会中，总会有扣人心弦的魔术和杂技。魔术，是你明知道是假的，看上去却像真的；杂技，则是你明知道是真的，却觉得这怎么可能是真的。

将不可能变成可能，是武汉杂技艺术有限责任公司副总经理陈健和无数杂技人终其一生的奋斗目标。

今年42 岁的陈健已在杂技世界里打拼30 余载，像鸟儿一样在空中飞翔是他的工作日常，他身上几乎每个地方都受过伤。陈健主演的《英雄天地间》《大跳板》《海盗》等高难度杂技节目斩获过无数重磅大奖，捍卫着武汉杂技的高度。

7月14日，在位于台北路的武汉杂技厅里，陈健向我们讲述了他对杂技那份无法割舍的爱。

他从小特别爱运动，学过武术，小学三年级时，杂技教师去他们学校招人，他挺感兴趣，而且通过了考核，就被录取了。

虽然父母知道学杂技挺苦，但干什么都得吃苦，所以选择支持他。老师看了看他的骨骼，让他做点简单的训练，他能坚持。有很多孩子受不了，就退出了。

Chen Jian (left) guiding the young actors in their training 陈健（左）指导小演员们训练

“I felt particularly good at that time because the training was not so intense at that moment,” Chen Jian recalled. “Dozens of students in my class got up at 5 o’clock every morning to practice morning skills. At the very beginning, we practiced just for fun and played around, but when we moved to a higher stage, we all began to suffer. The first three years were the hardest time, which was like a hell for a lot of trainees, because at that time practicing the hamstrings was considered the hardest part in training. We would feel painful and cry when we pressed our legs every day to train our basic skills. When I was about eleven years old, I was singled out for performance training and I realized my efforts counted.”

“我当时感觉还好，那个阶段的训练强度不算大。我们那一届几十个学生，每天早上5 点起来练早功，一开始还打打闹闹觉得好玩，但等练到更高阶段的时候，都开始哭了。前3年是最苦的，对很多人来说可能像地狱，因为那时候腿、筋都是最硬的，每天都边哭边压腿，得把基础打好。差不多到了11 岁，我开始进入到节目训练中，那时候就有种水到渠成的感觉了。”

1990年，陈健12 岁，杂技团从60 多个孩子中挑选了十几个，到日本演出，一直演了3 个月，效果特别好，他很有成就感。那是他第一次飞出国门，在那个年代能坐飞机、出国，是值得炫耀的。“慢慢地，我觉得杂技是我可以赖以生存的事业，我对它是最亲切、最熟悉的，你让我再去做别的，我可能不会做到这么好。”

1.企业核心能力整体上相当匮乏。具有自身独特核心能力的企业才是健康拥有活力的，然而，纵观国内众多企业，虽然有些时候一些企业也表现出很大优势，获得了很大利润，但对于企业核心能力，多数企业仍然没有建立起来。快速成立又快速破产的企业比比皆是，并由此造成我国就业市场持续严峻的形势。

陈健在杂技方面有天赋，表演胆大心细，喜欢创新。“我们小时候跟着老师学翻跳板，翻两周，后来就想，能不能变成翻三周，再转体180 度，慢慢增加创意和难度。说起来轻松，做起来可没那么容易，受伤是家常便饭。杂技人和其他人最大的区别，是对身体的控制力，而这无非是依靠长期的训练，形成肌肉记忆，就是几万次、十几万次地练。”

陈健说：“杂技的内核是一种精神，积极向上，自强不息，坚韧不拔。杂技人做的事就是挑战自己的极限，达到常人不可能实现的程度，挑战自身各方面的天花板。如果将这种精神带到现实生活里，就是‘不妥协’。杂技人不管之后干什么，都不会觉得辛苦，因为他经历过竞技运动，吃过很多精神和身体上的苦，再大的事儿都不算什么了。”

由于年龄极限，陈健30 岁时，工作重心从表演转向带团队，但直到35 岁还在演出，后来因身上伤太多，不得不离开自己心爱的舞台。“我的脑海里总有那种像小鸟一样飞的感觉，我永远忘不了在台上的这种幸福感。”陈健说。

身为武汉杂技界的中生代力量，陈健说，他的梦想就是带出一支优秀青年团队，多培养一些懂业务、懂市场的复合型人才，把“传帮带”做好，使剧团发展良性循环，让武汉杂技继续位居全中国第一梯队，让武汉杂技始终保持在一定的高度。

陈健说，武汉杂技团是美国迪士尼在中国国内唯一的合作伙伴，双方合作了3年，杂技团的艺术创作是得到充分肯定的。

他告诉我们：“因受新冠肺炎疫情影响，团员们5 个月没练功，功力都有所退步，恢复训练了一段时间才回来。现在我们一周训练6天，和时间赛跑，想在年底创作一台大戏出来，献礼建党100 周年。”

对于自己的杂技人生，陈健很自豪：“如果人生可以重来，我还是愿意做杂技，继续在舞台上飞翔，完成以前没有完成的梦想，这种飞翔的感觉终身难忘。但我会想办法，让自己不再受这么多伤了。”陈健的眼神告诉我们，他是由衷地爱这门挑战极限的艺术。

Chen Jian is quite talented in acrobatics, bold and careful in performance, and is fond of creation in his movements. “When we were young, our teacher taught us to play the springboard two turns, and then we wondered if we could make it three turns and then rotate it 180 degrees, gradually increasing the creativity and difficulty. It is easier said than done, and it is very common to get injured in the practice. The biggest difference between acrobats and other performers is the control of the body, which relies on long-term training, the formation of muscle memory, and tens of thousands of times practicing movements.”

Chen Jian continued: “The core of acrobatics is a kind of positive, unremitting, and enduring spirit. What acrobats do is to challenge their own limits to the extent that ordinary people cannot achieve, and to challenge their own talents in all aspects. If this spirit is brought to real life, it means never giving up. Acrobats do not feel upset no matter what, because they have experienced countless competitions in sports and suffered a lot of mental and physical tests. No matter how tough things are, challenges mean nothing in their eyes.”

Due to the age limit, Chen Jian shifted his focus from stage performance to coaching at the age of 30, but he continued to perform until the age of 35, when he had to leave his cherished stage because of too many injuries. “I always have the feeling of flying like a bird in my mind, and I will never forget the happiness I felt on the stage,” Chen Jian said.

As the backbone force of the Wuhan acrobatic community, Chen Jian said that his dream was to bring out a good young acrobatic team and cultivate more interdisciplinary talents who are at home in both an acrobatic context and the business market. He wants to do well in the mentoring and coaching position and keep the Wuhan acrobatics community at the top of the industry.

Chen Jian also said that Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe was Disney’s only partner in China. The two sides have cooperated for three years, and the troupe’s artistic creations had been fully affirmed internationally.

He told us that the troupe members had not practiced their skills for 5 months, and their skills were in decline due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It took them some time to resume training. “Now we were training 6 days a week, racing against time because we wanted to create a host of programs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Founding of the CPC by the end of the year.”

Being very proud of his own acrobatic life, Chen Jian said: “If I could live life again, I would still pursue acrobatics, continue to fly on the stage, complete my dreams that I haven’t achieved and hold dear the feeling of flying forever. Besides, I could think of some ways to avoid being injured.” From Chen Jian’s eyes, we knew that he genuinely loved the art of acrobatics, which allows humans to challenge their limits.

(Translation: Zhou Honghua)