"My dear, I bought Cheng Liansu's magic ticket tomorrow, let's go and see it together when the time comes!" On this day, Nicole excitedly took two tickets and said to Monet.

Because Monet watched a movie called "Deadly Magic" before the crossing, part of the plot and background in it were adapted from the experience of this "Cheng Liansu", so he still has some understanding of him.

This "Cheng Liansu" is actually a very interesting person, first of all, he is a "Chinese magician", the reason for the quotation marks is because he is not Chinese at all, but this guy has been committed to packaging himself as a Chinese, not only claiming to be a Scottish missionary living in China and the child of a Cantonese woman, but also worshipping a Chinese magician called "Ah He" as a teacher, so he learned Chinese magic.

The most interesting thing is that he hardly speaks on stage or in interviews, and even if he speaks, it is only a few crappy words (imagine the stiff accent of foreigners when they first learn Chinese), and when he needs to communicate with people, he brings a translator, in fact, it is not so much a translator as a deceitful assistant......

AND HE ALSO HAS A CHINESE WIFE NAMED "SUEE SEEN" AS HIS ACTING ASSISTANT, BUT IN FACT THIS "SUEE SEEN" IS NEITHER HIS WIFE NOR Chinese...... (It's his mistress)

In fact, "Cheng Liansu", whose real name is William Robinson, is an American, but he did learn magic from elementary school, and he learned it from great magicians like Harry Keller and Alexander Heyman.

When he first debuted, he liked an Arabic-style German magician Max Ödinger, so he also gave himself an Arabic-style stage name called "Ahmed Ben Ali", but it didn't become popular.

Later, when he saw Zhu Liankui become popular, he began to follow his path, shaving his beard, changing his hairstyle, keeping braids, creating a personality, and re-appearing on stage, and became an instant hit, and even surpassed "Zhu Liankui" for a time, becoming the most well-known and highest-paid magician in Europe and America......

However, Zhu Liankui is a serious Chinese magician, and he has also performed for Cixi, so he wrote "royal magician" on his leaflets in Europe and the United States, and in 1898, when the "Chinese Exclusion Act" was prevalent and the Chinese were widely discriminated against, he went to the United States to perform, with the help of Colonel Hopkins of the American Vaudeville Organization, he stayed in the United States as a performing artist rather than a laborer, which was an extremely rare treatment at the time, and he was also selected for the official journal of the International Association of Magicians LINKING One of the few Chinese in RING.

In 1905, because the two performed together in London, Zhu Liankui recognized Cheng Liansu's identity, and in order to expose his true face, he challenged him, but I don't know why Zhu Liankui did not appear on the day of the challenge, so Cheng Liansu won without a fight, and his fame rose to a new level.

The period from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the twentieth century was actually a time when science and superstition coexisted. At that time, people enjoyed the convenience of science and technology on the one hand, but on the other hand, they still believed in the existence of souls and magic. Various magic shows related to mysticism, such as mind-reading performances, hypnosis, séances, etc., are extremely popular.

Against this backdrop, Westerners have also begun to develop a strong interest in Eastern philosophy and religion. This is the reason why Chinese magicians, or magic shows with Chinese elements, are sought after at this time.

By the same token, Western audiences at the time were filled with all kinds of prejudices and stereotypes about Asians. Therefore, if you want them to think that you are a real Chinese, you need to put your image on their standards.

Robinson did just that. He didn't care if he was showing the true image of the Chinese. He will only perform a "Chinese" who conforms to the "image of Chinese" in the minds of Westerners.

For example, the way he opens his theater performance is to "fall from the sky" from above the stage. The way of descending is not unusual, it is the traditional "hanging Weiya". But he would let his braids stand up, as if an invisible force in the air was grasping his braids and lowering them. Zhu Liankui would never do this kind of bridge with a certain insulting nature to Chinese, but an imposter like Cheng Liansu does not have any psychological burden.

Just when Monet's mind was full of cranky thoughts, Nicole next to him suddenly tugged on his sleeve and said excitedly: "Tony, look, Cheng Liansu is going to perform his most magical bullet with his mouth!" ”

The principle of this so-called "catching bullets with the mouth" is actually very simple, in fact, his gun is modified, although the bullet is real, and the place where the bullet is loaded is also real, but the gunpowder detonated by the trigger is in another space on the gun body, so the explosion will not affect the real bullet.

The volunteers who shot and the audience couldn't see that the bullet was not actually fired, only heard the explosion and saw the fire, and then Cheng Liansu spit out the bullet he had long hidden in his mouth onto the plate, so as to complete the magical "catch the bullet with his mouth", this show really made him a lot of money, but in the end he died on this show, but Monet can't remember what year it was.

To add to the exoticism and mystery, Cheng Liansu's performance is a bit of a plot, this time he is posing as a prisoner who has been executed and wronged, while his assistant is posing as a Boxer who is widely resented for the massacre of white people.

Under normal circumstances, after the audience examines the bullets and pistols and even loads the bullets into the gun himself, the assistant, that is, the "boxer", shoots at Cheng Liansu, and then Cheng Liansu will bite the "shot" bullet with his mouth.

But this time, Cheng Liansu did not bite the bullet, but instead spat blood and shouted a sentence in standard American English: "God, something went wrong!" Lower the curtain! Then there was chaos on stage.

Seeing this scene, Nicole said in surprise: "Huh? Is this Cheng Liansu's new trick? ”

Monet, on the other hand, immediately remembered the scene in his memory, and quickly stood up and shouted, "Quick, send him to the hospital!" ”

PS: Cheng Liansu's real death time is 1918, because the plot needs to be advanced to him a few years in advance, I hope you understand, because it is a real person, so I didn't do any magic changes, and if there are book friends who haven't watched the movie "Deadly Magic", I highly recommend it, it's very good.