The Diabolo Museum in Beijing is located in Xicheng district, not far from the Baoguo Temple. Three or four hundred meters must be covered from the main street to its location at Xiaoxing Hutong, and on the way there, vendors offer all kinds of odds and ends at improvised stands; “original” old souvenirs and antiques are at display at a stamp and coin collection, and locals meet for a chat or play cards. The same goes for the temple, by the way, definitely not the usual place for silence and prayers.
So on the way to the museum, the visitor already gets all sorts of impressions of a typical Chinese neighborhood, and especially of Beijing, and a colorfully decorated wall with children playing diabolo painted on it finally indicates the entrance to the museum. A few senior women sit in front of the mural, chat, gossip or simply enjoy the autumn sun, and it is just as relaxed and cozy in the museum itself, which is located in a recently renovated “siheyuan”, an old courtyard, with two of the small buildings serving as exhibition rooms and the third is used for selling souvenirs. The fourth building, which occupies the southern part of the courtyard, the volunteers in charge of the museum have their base and wait for guests. Today these volunteers are Ms. Zhang and Mr. Ma., and once they become aware of our small group, they immediatly reach out and lead us to the two exhibition rooms. Already on the short way there, Mr. Ma tells us about the history of the diabolo:
“The diabolo is now known nationwide. But it has its origin in Beijing, around the time of the Ming Dynasty. For a long time it was a game only played at the Forbidden City and intended as entertainment for the emperor. Over time it has become more and more popular with ordinary Beijingers. And even today people especially like to play diabolo at traditional festivals such as the Moon Festival and the Spring Festival. If done right, it has a beautiful, solemn sound. And in 2006, the diabolo was even recognized as an intangible cultural heritage!”
The exhibits in the museum do not go back to Ming Dynasty, but at least they go back to the 19th century. Photos, explanations of the structure and material of a diabolo – it usually consists of bamboo, but also more and more of plastic – pennants, flags and cups with imprints of events and games in order to honor the diabolo can be found, figurines of little children with the obligatory one or two sticks in their hands… And of course the two main pieces of the museum, the largest and the smallest diabolo in the world – 150 centimeters in diameter or the size of a fingernail! Cleverly, both were arranged in one and the same showcase, so that the size comparison is very impressive. Mr. Ma also points out other photographs in the exhibition. In one of them, the “bird’s nest”, meaning the Olympic Stadium, can be seen in the background, and in front of it: a proud group of elderly people in fine silk robes, all with a diabolo in their hand. Mr. Ma’s eyes light up as he points to it and says:
“That was before the opening ceremony. Before the Olympics, we trained hard for over two months. All the people in the photograph are in our club, a total of over 50 people, and everyone is excellent at playing diabolo. We usually do performances at the fair every Spring Festival. But at the Olympic Games, that was something special! ”
How good the two seniors still know how to handle the diabolo is then shown by Mr. Ma and Ms. Zhang in the inner courtyard, where Mr. Ma lets his colleague proceed after showing a few tricks himself – she can do it much better, he says with a smile. Ms. Zhang is obvioulsy happy and grateful for this flattery – and starts to show some of her moves: she throws the diabolo playfully into the air, catches it again, juggles with the short sticks and even turns around her own axis! Afterwards, and with one artistic hand movement, she is interweaving the diabolo, the two sticks and the white cord into a small square of art – well done!
After a short break, Ms. Zhang explains that all of this requires hard work and practice:
“Even as a child I was very interested in the diabolo. But it wasn’t until I retired that I really learned all about it, and Mr. Ma is my teacher to this day. ”
And Mr. Ma confirmes that they practice almost every day:
“Yes, we do exercises every day. We now have a club and in almost every park there is a diabolo team, so to say. For example in Tiantan, Taoranting or Beihai Park. In every park we have a team of 20 to 30 people, in larger parks even 40 to 50! Our association has in total more than 1,000 members! ”
The small and neat Diabolo Museum in Beijing is definitely worth a visit, especially if you combine it with a walk through the nearby hutongs and perhaps a game of cards in Baoguo Temple. In case there is not enough time for a visit of that area of town, a trip to one of the many parks can serve as compensation, the groups there can be recognized from afar by the loud purring sound of the diabolos!
First published on german.cri.cn
