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
Beijing
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Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
on May 11, 1854, He studied traditional
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
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 Foo 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. 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 City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
-born
William Robinson, who worked occasionally as a magician, decided to try for the $1,000. Foo 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 accidental death due to a failed bullet catch trick.
Early years
Robinson ...
. Robinson, in the guise of Soo, traveled to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
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 in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...
, including Foo's wife, accompanied the magician outside China and was shown as another attraction. Other members of Foo'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 (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
in 1922, aged 69 years.
In popular culture
Music
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russi ...
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."''
Film
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
’s ''
The Prestige
''The Prestige'' is a 1995 fantasy novel by British writer Christopher Priest. It tells the story of a prolonged feud between two stage magicians in late 1800s England. It is epistolary in structure; that is, it purports to be a collection of ...
''—about two warring stage conjurers—depicts a Chinese magician working in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, who performs a trick with a water bowl similar to one of Foo's stunts.
Television
A set of 1950s magic linking rings where featured on a episode on Pawn Stars.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foo, Ching Ling
1854 births
1922 deaths
Vaudeville performers
Chinese magicians
People from Beijing