100 Amazing Acts

It's getting harder and harder to think up things to do and places to take my folks while they're here with me. Luckily, Chicago is a town where summers are packed full of activities and events, so it doesn't take too long to come up with a destination. The highlight for this weekend was tapas at Cafe Babareeba (best tapas in Chicago), followed by a Cirque Shanghai performance at Navy Pier. "Bai Xi" (or 100 Amazing Acts) as it is known in Chinese, follows in the footsteps of ancient Han tradition, and it's name is a reference to its practitioners' seemingly endless abilities.

I've enjoyed seeing Cirque du Soleil perform before, and after reading reviews I figured that Cirque Shanghai was going to be something similar. The show was definitely entertaining, though not quite for the same reasons as a Cirque du Soleil performance. The acrobats were highly talented, of course, and displayed uncanny flexibility. From the flying trapeze artists swinging through the air, to the juggling tightrope-walking unicyclists, to the human-pyramid-forming children - all displayed a balance and elegance that was exquisite.

No, all of that was fine. It was the music that got to me. The show started out ok. With the six hundred year old Forbidden City as its stage backdrop, the performance had kung-fu performing acrobats going through their hypnotic moves to the beautiful strains of huqin music. Modernity was tastefully represented with electronic percussion and drums subtly blended in, and the overall effect was quite authentic. Until Act 2 began, and with it the Mission Impossible theme song.

Here popped out gold clad male acrobats, able to do push-ups with their fingertips while supporting more hand-standing acrobats on their necks. But all I could think of was Tom Cruise dangling from nylon rope as he struggle to prevent drops of sweat from falling on a pressure-sensitive vault floor.

The same problem continued with the juggling unicyclist, as she balanced saucers on her head while juggling tennis balls with one hand. To more movie music.

By the time two more male acrobats showed up and squared off in mock combat, I thought I'd heard enough. But that was when Queen's "We Will Rock You" came on the speakers. I couldn't take it anymore. While the two "traditional Chinese acrobat" combatants twirled impossibly around each other, I turned to Saeeda in frustration and asked her what the hell was going on.

"That," she replied, "is called globalization."