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Shanghai Tales: Chinese State Circus sheds light on the tough training involved in the perfectionist world of Chinese acrobatics. It’s almost entirely filmed within the Shanghai Circus School where it focusses on the students (children aged from 8 to 19) as they practise under pressure from the strictest teachers imaginable.
Stylistically, the documentary is presented in the most cold and austere way possible. It’s completely devoid of narration; right from the start there’s no sign at all of a reassuring voiceover to keep the viewer detached from what’s onscreen. Quite simply, there are just scenes of life within the circus school. This makes everything feel shockingly real - and very different from any other documentary I’ve ever watched.
It’s painful to look at the training that these children are put through. It’s relentlessly severe, and it’s obvious that they’re being worked overtime and against their will. I felt like I was watching child cruelty, the only noticeable difference being that this cruelty is paid for by the children’s parents.
One of the most saddening sequences is when an eight-year old boy is scolded for being “horribly overweight” (we’re told that he weighs just over 31 kilograms). His parents (who are both deaf) are then called to the school and subsequently blamed for his weight-gain. This situation is made even more upsetting by the fact that the boy’s parents come to the conclusion that their son must “persist” despite it being clear that he simply can’t stand the training.
It goes without saying that Chinese State Circus was very hard to watch for the majority of its duration. I'd find it difficult to see anybody (especially children!) experience such terrible pain. At one point a girl falls from the trapeze and injures her shoulder - she’s almost immediately commanded to shut up and stop crying. Later on, the instructors unemotionally tell their students that even if they are bleeding and bruised they must compete. They evidently couldn’t care less about the well-being of these children... and it’s heartbreaking.
I found this documentary painfully fascinating - it reminds me that we’d happily applaud these spectacular acrobatics shows if we saw them, without considering the harsh reality of how the performers are trained. Of course, the result is incredible. In fact, the last thing we're shown is the trapeze group giving a breathtaking display to win an important competition in Guangzhou (referred to as the Acrobatics Olympics of China). However, it’s impossible to be happy about the impressive performance once you know the tragic and depressing truth about how it was achieved.
Shanghai Tales continues on Thursday nights at 9pm on BBC4
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