Forget lion dances for Chinese New Year parties, Chinese acrobats are the true dextrous… acrobats. And yes, these pictures were taken on the 11th of February 2006. 🙁

Left: Women wear many masks. Right: Men speak in tongues, specifically those that sound like birds chirping. Below: Men with many hats like to jump about and exchange dandruff.

Left to right, top to bottom: The boy is well-balanced; he then attempts an Acme-like seesaw launcher, launching metal bowls onto his head; he succeeds; a man saddled with too many footballs; he believes that the glass is upside down, and thus cannot hold water; he then tries to hold a few storeys of cups and a vase; the cleaner lady wants some limelight too, when the acrobat fails and drops the glass cups, smashing all over the floor.

Top left and right: What a flat-headed young lady she will turn out to be. Walking with pots on your head is never easy, much less spinning them, then tossing them so they land on your head and while continuously spinning. Middle: Catch the bricks in midair. He’d play a fine game of Tetris. Bottom: FREE FLOW OF (CRAB) SHARKSFIN SOUP! Too bad I was allergic to crab meat, so yeah, no refilling for me.

“Oompa! Loompa!” sings in my head.