Ching Ling Foo
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Ching Ling Foo () was the stage name of the Chinese magician Chee Ling Qua (, 1854–1922). He is credited with being the first modern East Asian magician to achieve world fame.


Biography

Ching Ling Foo was born in
Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
,
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
, on May 11, 1854, He studied traditional Chinese
magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...
and was a well-respected performer in his homeland. During a typical performance, he stunned the audience by breathing smoke and fire or producing ribbons and a pole from his mouth. One of his sensational tricks had Chee using a sword to cut the head of a serving boy off at the shoulders. Then, to the amazement of the audience, the “beheaded” boy turns and exits the stage. Another trick involved producing a huge bowl, full to the brim with water, from out of an empty cloth. He would then pull a small child from the bowl. He brought his show to the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in
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,
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. When he brought his show to the United States in 1898, he began offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who could reproduce his water trick. (This was quite a large sum for the time, equivalent to about $33,050 in 2021.)
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
-born William Robinson, who worked occasionally as a magician, decided to try for the $1,000. Chee rebuffed him. Unable to claim the $1,000, Robinson developed a Chinese-style show of his own and recreated himself as
Chung Ling Soo William Ellsworth Robinson (April 2, 1861 – March 24, 1918) was an American magician who went by the stage name Chung Ling Soo (). He is mostly remembered today for his extensive use of yellowface in his act to falsely represent himself to be ...
. Robinson, in the guise of Chung, traveled to
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and a deep rivalry was begun between the two men. A group of Chinese women with
bound feet Foot binding (), or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls to change their shape and size. Feet altered by foot binding were known as lotus feet and the shoes made for them were known as lotus ...
, including Chee's wife, accompanied the magician outside China and was shown as another attraction. Other members of Chee's family would also participate in his act. He would often conjure his daughter, Chee Toy, onto the stage while his son would perform acrobatics and juggling. Ching Ling Foo died in
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
,
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
in 1922, aged 69 years.


In popular culture


Music

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...
included him in his lyrics for “From Here to Shanghai” (1917) :''"I'll eat the way they do,'' :''With a pair of wooden sticks,'' :''And I'll have Ching Ling Foo,'' :''Doing all his magic tricks."'' In the show Strike Up the Band, the Gershwins included a song "Patriotic Rally" which had the following verses: :"Land of Washington and Lincoln, Henry Ford and Morris Gest, :Land of Franklin, Land of Coolidge — men who stood the test! :Land of Jefferson and Adams, Dempsey and Ben Turpin, too, :Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson — all red, white, and blue! :Francis Bushman, Charlotte Cushman, and old Edwin Booth. :Admiral Dewey, “Lefty” Louie, and “Bambino” Ruth! :We could go on naming great men, but we have our fears; : this could go on for years! :Land of Minsky and Rumshinsky, Land of Donahue, :Land of Johnson and Yon Yonson, Land of Ching Ling Foo!"


Film

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...
’s ''
The Prestige ''The Prestige'' is a 1995 epistolary science fantasy mystery novel by Christopher Priest. It tells the story of a prolonged feud between two stage magicians in late 1800s England. Its main structure is that of a collection of diaries that ...
''—about two warring stage conjurers—depicts a Chinese magician working in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, who performs a trick with a water bowl similar to one of Foo's stunts.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foo, Ching Ling 1854 births 1922 deaths Chinese vaudeville performers Chinese magicians People from Beijing