With a flawless card trick, a 26-year-old magician from Taipei has become the first Taiwanese to win a top prize at the World Championship of Magic.
Horret Wu (吳何) was the winner of the close-up card magic category, performed in close proximity to the judges and audience.
“Card magic is commonly a European area of expertise,” the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted Wu as saying. “There aren’t many that can take the championship from them without remarkable innovation and skill.”
Wu said he was advised to change categories to increase his chances of winning, but for Wu the competition was not just about winning, it was a way to challenge himself, he said.
Wu is the first Asian to win that category, giving a performance that was considered a flawless display of card trickery at the highest level of technical skill.
Following his performance, Wu received a five-minute standing ovation for his first performance in a global competition held by the International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM).
He has won multiple awards from the Taiwan Magic Association and he placed second last year in a different category at a FISM competition in South Korea.
A self-described “underground master of sleight,” Wu specializes in card magic and sleight-of-hand. Well known on the Taiwanese magic scene, he has crafted original acts.
The FISM is one of the top organizations in the international magic community, founded in 1948. The triennial World Championship of Magic is the most prominent FISM event, which is attended by thousands of magicians from around the world.
This year’s competition was held in the Italian town of Rimini from July 6-Saturday last week.
For Wu, the next step is Japan and France, with the aim putting Taiwan into the international magic spotlight.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the