Performing magic is fast becoming one of the hottest trends in China this year. Much of the credit for this burst of interest goes to Louis Liu, 33, a Taiwanese magician. He leapt to stardom on the mainland overnight after performing magic on this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the most watched program on Chinese TV.

In the performance, Liu magically put the ring of a gala hostess into an egg. The trick impressed millions of viewers, and Liu was praised as one of the best performers on the show.

Although Liu had appeared on CCTV several years before, and he also had been invited to participate in some local TV shows, his name was still unknown to most Chinese. But the 2009 Spring Festival Gala of CCTV changed all that. It was this eight-minute show that changed his life.

Although he was not the first magician to appear on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, he is the only one that audiences remember.

Along with his fame, Liu's appearance fees have rocketed. It is alleged that he now charges six times more than before the festival. The public exposure has been nothing short of magical.

Liu began to learn magic at the age of 7, after being fascinated by a trick performed by a magician in a department store. At the age of 12, he won first prize in a magic competition in Taiwan at which David Copperfield, Liu's idol, was one of the judges. Liu then went on to win awards at magic competitions across the globe. He is now busy with his Asian tour.

Mysterious man

However, more than Liu's success, what is more important is the national interest in magic he has aroused. The direct result was the mushrooming of magic-related programs on various TV stations across the country. By inviting magic lovers to participate in the shows and professional magicians to be judges, these programs are drawing record ratings whenever they are aired.

Books about magic have also become popular, especially those written by Liu. Websites about magic appear one after another. These websites sell stage props to perform magic and provide the secrets of how to perform magic. Magic fans also buy books or video materials on magic on these websites and exchange knowledge and experience about magic in the forum space provided.

The sales lists of dangdang.com and amazon.cn, two of the largest online bookstores in China, show that after the 2009 Spring Festival, the sales of books about magic increased sharply. Many bookshops have set up special counters for magic books.

Zhang Zhe, 25, who works for an engineering company in Beijing, bought a book by Liu, Fascination of Magic, after Spring Festival. "I could not find it in bookstores near my company and then I had to resort to the online bookstore, which also let me wait around one month. The book sells very well," Zhang said. He admitted that he hopes to learn some tricks in order to perform in front of his friends. "Performing magic is so cool," he said.

Besides adults, children are another group of Liu's fans. Finding out how to perform simple tricks interests them very much. A magic goods merchant at the Tianyi Wholesale Market in Beijing said that his sales have doubled since last year, with average daily sales reaching 10,000 yuan ($1,500). "Most of the goods that had been in stock for years sold out," he said.

Seeing Liu as their idol, many children hope to follow in his footsteps and this has boosted the popularity of magic schools.

Yuan Xijun, Manager of Beijing Qitian Magic Performance and Training Center, has been a direct recipient of the favorable change. "In the past, the busiest time of our center was from October to January," he said in an article in China Cultural Daily. "But this year, just after the Spring Festival Gala at the end of January, we began to receive consultation calls asking for registration information." According to Yuan, the ages of those wanting to learn magic vary from 3 to 70 years old, and the learners include people from all walks of life.

The magic fever also witnessed the emergence of various magic organizations. Liu Shixue, a student at the Chengdu University of Technology, is one of the promoters. He organized a society of magic at his university, which now has over 70 members. They perform magic on campus and are very popular among their schoolmates.

Energized

Nobody could deny that Liu has played an important role in bringing about such a big change to China's magic industry.

Wu Xiaoli, a producer at the Fujian-based Southeast TV Station, said in an article published in Life Week magazine that Liu has taken China's magic industry to the next level, which is a great contribution to the development of the profession.

She said that Liu does not represent the highest magic performing level in China, but he is the most suited magician in China for TV. The old generation of Chinese magicians were used to theater performance, which does not produce good effects on TV. The new generations of magicians, like Liu, pay much attention to the employment of TV nuances and interactive communication with audiences.

Du Linsen, a famous Chinese magician, told China Cultural Daily that Liu's performance belongs to close-up magic, which draws audiences closer to the performer.
He said Liu has made Chinese audience feel that they too can perform magic and that it is not some exclusive skill.

Liu is really different from those stereotyped images of magicians in the minds of the audience. When he performs, he acts like an actor or a host. He is humorous and is good at creating a mysterious atmosphere. Besides being impressed by his amazing magic, audiences also are often amused.

Liu also likes to invite audience participation, one of the major attractions of his magic.
In an interview with the Shanghai-based Xinmin Weekly, Liu said that he is unsociable and eccentric, but behind such a disposition, he has a heartfelt desire to perform. On the stage, he is a different person. Audiences see a magician who is handsome, humorous, smart and talkative and who always knows what the audience wants to hear.

He said that the biggest difference between his performance and that of others is his creative ideas and the entire performance before the camera. Most props he uses are those people would see every day, and that is why it has such a big impact on audiences.
Liu said he wanted to establish a new image of magicians that is totally different from that of older generations of magicians, who would dress up in tailcoats and pull rabbits from their hats.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about something behind magic itself, such as what I should say on the stage, including the manner and the choice of words, expressions of eyes, costumes, music and how to mobilize the curiosity of the audience," Liu said.

Sustained magic

But although Liu has done much to bring magic into mainstream life, experts in Chinese magic circles say there is no systematic theory for magic teaching in China now. A system of magic brokers needs to be introduced to promote the development of magic, they say.

In 2002, David Copperfield performed in China, which aroused a fever for magic at that time, but it was not sustained. Some people worry that the fever triggered by Liu will have a similar flash in the end.

It seems that this time things have changed. On July 26-31, the 24th convention of the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM) will be held in Beijing, the first time the event is held in China. One of the major programs of the convention is the World Championships of Magic, seen as the Olympics of world magic. It will bring the current fever for magic in China to a boil, making 2009 a landmark year in the history of China's magic.