Taiwanese magician Lu Chen (劉謙) has cast a spell over millions of television viewers in China, breaking into the big time with a mix of classic illusions and modern trickery.
China’s vast showbiz market is the focus of a growing number of Taiwanese entertainers hoping to take their name recognition and moneymaking potential to a whole new level — and Lu has charmed his way onto the charts.
He ranks 13th on the list of Chinese celebrities produced by Forbes magazine, which also lists him as the seventh most searched for on the Internet and puts his annual income at 43 million yuan (US$6.3 million).
PHOTO: CHEN YI-CHUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Lu’s big break came last year when he joined the elite list of entertainers to appear on China’s most-watched program — the Lunar New Year evening show, which boasts a billion viewers.
“For many performers it’s a top honor and a lifelong goal to get on the show,” Lu told reporters after performing recently in Taipei. “I didn’t expect my chance to come so fast.”
His eight-minute gig was voted one of the most popular segments of the show, ensuring a spot for the following year while bringing him lucrative performing and endorsement deals.
Lu, slim and eloquent, attributed his success to giving a modern look to his profession, a relatively overlooked area in Chinese-language entertainment.
“In China, there is a stereotype that a magician must either wear a tuxedo to pull rabbits from a hat or don a long Chinese robe to produce a goldfish tank out of thin air. They perform in silence over classical music,” he says.
In contrast, Lu talks to the audience and uses common items that can be seen everywhere every day so that “the impact of the magic trick is stronger,” he said.
One of his popular close-up tricks is to appear to put a ring that he borrows from a member of the audience into an egg, which he then breaks to take it out. Lu said the illusion is his original idea and the result of three years of work.
Since last year, Lu has staged over 50 shows in China and other countries, also performing classic illusions such as escaping after being chained and locked in a box, or “levitating” members of the audience.
It has been a dream come true for a boy who fell in love with magic at first sight.
“I saw a coin trick at a department store when I was 7 years old and I thought it was fascinating. I couldn’t help thinking about it every day and wondering how it was done.”
Lu went on to win a young magicians’ championship five years later in Taiwan, receiving the trophy from his idol, US illusionist David Copperfield, who was hugely popular in Taiwan in his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s.
While the award encouraged him to continue studying magic, Lu admitted he had doubts about earning a living as a magician as “it’s not a normal steady job.”
“But I decided to give it a try because I liked entertaining myself and others. Besides, I didn’t want to be stuck in a boring office job,” Lu said.
However, Lu’s speedy rise to fame in China has its costs, as he is constantly forced to fend off criticism from viewers who claim to have cracked his tricks or fellow magicians who challenge his skills, he said.
Even his appearance on a Japanese variety show sparked a controversy in China, where anti-Japan sentiment remains strong over Japanese wartime aggression.
“Some people think magicians are all liars and magic is trickery, so they get disappointed and angry, but this is not the right attitude for watching a magic performance.” Lu said. “Magic is about creating a dream world and realizing people’s desires, such as being able to make people fly or predict future events ... Magic is about surprising the audience and making them laugh.”
Lu is now also planning to take his talents in a new direction and open a magic school in Beijing in addition to performing.
“Magic is also an art of talking, so it will help people be more successful at their jobs by enhancing their speech and communication skills. It can even help young men court girlfriends,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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