Publication Date：09/01/2007
Byline：PAT GAO
A homegrown magician conjures his art into a new form of popular entertainment.
In 2003, an international festival of magic was held in Singapore in a community theater. From more than 150 professional and amateur magicians registered to compete at the event, eight were selected for the finals. Winners of the two top prizes came from the United States and Japan, two countries that have strong traditions of magic performance. The second runner-up award went to P. J. Wen, a then 26-year-old Taiwanese magician.
The Singapore prize started a brilliant roll for Wen, winning major international awards for magicians in the following years. In 2004, he won the championship of a magic contest held in Beijing, the top event of its kind in the Chinese-speaking world. The next year, he became the only Asian contestant among six magicians in the final round of an annual competition held in the American casino city of Reno by the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the world's largest association of sorcerers.
Wen's next major competition is the World Championships of Magic in Beijing in 2009, held by the International Federation of Magic Societies, in which Taiwanese magicians were not officially represented until last year. This organization is also known as the European Magic Federation, having been established in Switzerland in 1948. In contrast to other magic events of a primarily commercial nature, its triennial competition recognizes the actual level of magic expertise. For many magicians, its winner is the true world champion.
Right Before Your Very Eyes!
As a result of Wen's growing presence in the international magic scene, he is now the leading force in Taiwanese magic, both technically and commercially. Magical technique is presided over by the Taiwan Magic Research and Development Association (TMRDA), which Wen helped found in 1998 when he was an undergraduate at National Taiwan Normal University, while the commerce of magic is overseen by Liar Magic Entertainment. Chief creative officer of Liar, whose members total eight magicians including Wen, Asher Pang is the son of a well-known TV actor and points out that international involvement not only creates a Taiwanese brand of magic, but also spurs on its local development.
Liar functions as point of contact and reference for foreign magicians performing in Taiwan. "Even if you give them handsome money," Pang says, "you can't expect them to fly all the way to a strange place after a few phone calls or emails." In February this year, Liar invited illusionists from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand to Taipei for the TMRDA's annual meeting, shows and a competition.
The event was organized by Wen, a name familiar on the international magic scene. "Such events are quite significant for magic here," he says. "Our magicians can learn a lot from world-class acts and form their own distinctive style and technical skill." Magic shows also offer Taiwanese audiences another choice in the performing arts. "Magic elements can be incorporated into other forms of performance such as theater plays," Wen says. His own shows often feature dramatic scenes from everyday life such as dating. In one act, the magician fancifully changes clothes, produces a bunch of roses from nowhere and rescues a girl from a traffic jam.
Master of Illusion
Wen is now a postgraduate student in a master's program combining children's scientific education and magical arts at National Changhua University of Education. "Magic is always great fun for kids," he says. In his own childhood, Wen was fascinated by magic shows on television and one day imitated them by trying to make flower petals float in the air. Having plucked the petals from expensive orchids his parents nurtured, his first attempt at the art of illusion caused something of a furor at home.
There are quite a few magicians who teach children. "It's a big market because parents are willing to pay," Wen says. "But I concentrate more on the role of a player rather than a coach." With a view to promoting the magical arts, he teaches in several community colleges and student clubs at universities, and the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is considering offering him a teacher's position--something unprecedented in Taiwanese schools.
For Wen, this is a sign of a more liberal educational environment in Taiwan. "It has much to do with the ongoing educational reform in recent years," he says. "Such reform helps build a more diverse, dynamic scene for arts and culture." In order to promote pluralistic learning, the government's educational policy is shifting toward recognition of a greater range of abilities. Now, there are an increasing number of student magic clubs in universities and high schools, and perhaps some day competence in illusion will become recruitment criteria in schools, just as proficiency in the game of Go is in some senior high schools.
For the time being, however, the pursuit of magic skills is still usually not considered a sustainable or profitable career. "Many people even doubt if it's better than selling tricks on the streets," Pang says. "One of my company's jobs is to promote magic as a respected profession and art form." A professional performer, Wen says that his income proves that a magician can make a good living. "In comparison with highly thought-of doctors who have high income but often deal with sick and depressed people," he says, "I'm lucky to share my audience's laughter and happiness at each of my shows."
Sleight of Hand
Magic is the art of deceiving the eyes, and this is why Pang and Wen's company is named Liar. "In addition to the genuine creativity and great confidence required by any good performer," Wen says, "a magician has to be an unashamed deceiver through a play of words and movements." Moreover, performing magic demands considerable physical strength and mental concentration; no performer can ensure tricks will be successful all the time. "Magicians are under great mental and physical pressure," Pang says. Wen adds that after two or three 30-minute shows and rehearsals, he has used up every last bit of his energy.
While maintaining constant eye contact with the audience, an illusionist has to learn to hide his hand movements from audience's gaze. One of the basic trainings for sleight of hand aims at subtler, freer movement of fingers through everyday finger exercises. Each finger must, so to speak, have a relatively independent life from its neighbors yet also has to interact with them. Wen's dexterity is also shown in his making of magic props. "This is an issue of supply and demand," Wen says. "I do it because it takes less time than buying from foreign makers, and I can also make things that are suited to my own performances."
In addition to props, magic shows also require well-honed skills in costumery, music and stage design. "Magic combines various elements just like any other forms of performance art," Pang says. "You have to get everything you can to make people believe that things appear out of nowhere." How magicians do their tricks with their sharp, simple gestures must remain a secret to the audience. Wen points out that this aspect of illusion is the art's major distinction from acrobatics. In an acrobatic show, performers' gestures are difficult and complicated, but the audience knows how they are done. "In China, magic is being separated from acrobatics," Wen says.
In Taiwan, magicians are frequently invited to the year-end parties that are a tradition for businesses all over the country. More often than not, big companies compete with each other on scale and spectacle. In recent years, an increasing number of press launches for luxury goods such as watches and cars feature illusionists. The surprise of doves changing into watches or celebrities suddenly appearing from thin air obviously outclasses thin models doing nothing more than strutting down a catwalk.
Wen is a favorite for organizers of such events. In addition to his model-like physique, the innovation and creativity of his shows contrast sharply with the lackluster acts of other magicians. Wen points out that, for both beginners and veteran magicians in Taiwan, learning the art of illusion has improved greatly because of quick, convenient exchanges of information on modern communication channels such as the Internet. "Refinement of skills is no problem if one is determined to become a good magician," he says. "But one must figure out how to make one's skills into popular entertainment." While the origins of magic are believed to be in ancient Egyptian entertainment for pharaohs, Wen is far more interested in, and successful at, entertaining the builders of Taiwan's modern-day pyramids.
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