Twenty-four overseas students have enrolled in China's leading circus skills school this year as part of a cultural exchange program funded by the government.

 

Students from Kenya, Ethiopia, Comoros and Venezuela have just started their 12-month training program at the Wuqiao Acrobatic Arts School, in Wuqiao County, inside north China's Hebei Province, a place considered to be the cradle of Chinese circus.

 

The history of the Wuqiao circus dates back more than 2,000 years when people in the region were very poor due to the arid land and had to rely on performing special skills to make a living. They became some of the earliest circus performers. This tradition has been passed on from generation to generation.

 

Most of the overseas students were fine art students or circus performers in their own countries before coming to Wuqiao. The governments of their own countries selected them for the free training program.

 

"The school provides us with free food, training clothes and accommodation, along with 100 yuan in pocket money," said 14-year-old Kenyan juggler Ronald.

 

Each day, they get up at six o'clock and have a one-hour run before breakfast. Their morning training lasts three hours and the afternoon session two hours. They also have Chinese and music classes.

 

"In the beginning, it was really hard because we were not used to the training routine," said Daniel Sierralta, 20, from Venezuela. "But after some time passed, we started to feel comfortable with it."

 

Sierralta was involved in the circus back home, as well as being a student of modern dance, but this is the first time he has received formal training. He plans to learn how to walk the tight wire and do vertical rope skills.

 

"I love the circus very much but also I love traveling. With this career, I can work and learn about the whole world," said Sierralta.

 

Established in 1985, the China Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School started training programs for foreign students in 2002.

 

So far, 110 students, including 98 young people from Africa and others from the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea, have graduated from the school, according to Qi Zhiyi, the school's vice president.

 

Most of the graduates are now working in circus troupes in their own countries and some have come back to improve their skills further, according to Qi.

 

Hiberteseb Alemu, from Ethiopia, has to pay 40,000 yuan (US$5,333 ) for the training because he is not a member of the free program.

 

"Eleven of my friends and my younger sister have studied here and they support me coming here," said the 23-year-old, who was a full-time driver and mechanic, as well as a part-time circus performer, in Ethiopia.

 

His younger sister Sewasew received one year of free training in this school last year under the China-Africa cooperation and aid program. She now works with Mama Africa, an African circus troupe.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2007)