(19 Jun 2025)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ansan, South Korea – 10 June 2025
1. Various of Dongchoon Circus performance
2. Various of Dongchoon Circus tent exterior
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seoul, South Korea – 9 June 2025
3. Various set up shots of Head of Dongchoon Circus, Park Sae-hwan
4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) : Park Sae-hwan, Head of Dongchoon Circus
"As I recall the hardship that I’ve gone through, I think I’ve done something significant. But I also feel heavy responsibility because if Dongchoon stops, our country’s circus, one genre in our performing arts, will disappear. That’s the problem.”
5. Wide of Park
6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) : Park Sae-hwan, Head of Dongchoon Circus
"I thought Dongchoon must not disappear. When we want to study the roots of our country’s dramas, we should look back on the traces of Dongchoon. The same goes for the history of our other shows, traditional music performances and magic shows as well as circuses themselves."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ansan, South Korea – 10 June 2025
7. Various of Dongchoon Circus performance
8. Wide of spectators
9. Wide of spectators leaving after the show
10. SOUNDBITE (Korean) : Sim Chung-yong, 61, spectator
"It was a very impressive and meaningful circus but more than that I found it deeply moving and significant because this is the only circus in the country. That process must have involved so much pain and hardship for them. So rather than feeling simple joy or excitement, I found myself thinking more about their struggles—how much hard work they had to endure, even from such a young age."
11. Various of circus performers practicing before the performance
12. Various of Xing Jiangtao, a 37-year-old Chinese person, who is working at Dongchoon Circus as staff handling performance planning
13. SOUNDBITE (Korean) : Xing Jiangtao, Dongchoon Circus staff
"Now, it’s only circus in South Korea and I hope we would create good circus performances to show to spectators so that we can help Dongchoon exist for another 100 years."
14. Various of Dongchoon Circus performance
STORYLINE:
LEAD IN :
The century-old Dongchoon Circus Troupe is the last of its kind in South Korea.
As audiences and performers drift away to cinema, television and social media those left in the big top fear for the future.
STORYLINE :
Acrobats twirl, suspended over the audience, jugglers perform tricks with hats and and performers ride a unicycle on a tightrope under the big top.
There are no more elephant and monkey acts. No more death-defying motorbike stunts. No more singing or acting on stage.
Despite that, the performances here please the audience, who clap constantly. The Dongchoon Circus Troupe is South Korea’s last, and it’s been going for a hundred years.
“As I recall the hardship that I’ve gone through, I think I’ve done something significant,” says Park Sae-hwan, the head of the circus.
He joined the Dongchoon circus in 1963. He says he feels a heavy responsibility because "if Dongchoon stops, our country’s circus, one genre in our performing arts, will disappear".
Founded in 1925, Dongchoon is the country’s oldest circus.
In the golden ages of South Korean circuses in the 1960s, when most households still had no TVs, Dongchoon travelled across the country, wowing audiences with exotic animals like an elephant and a giraffe and a variety of shows including skits, comic talks, singing, dancing and magic shows.
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