The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, the other being the Chinese New Year. Cirque de Chine celebrated the festival with over 200 members of the East Tennessee Chinese Association, and their families, on September 13, at the Smoky Mountain Palace in Sevierville.

To properly celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the traditional Chinese Reunion Day, ETCA decided to hold their annual festival party at the Smoky Mountain Palace with their Chinese counterparts, the acrobats of Cirque de Chine.

In appreciation for the mutual support and the willingness to help each other for the good of all concern, ETCA presented Cirque de Chine with an exquisite bronze medal.

Cirque de Chine in return honored its guest by presenting an array of traditional Chinese dishes which brought many compliments and comments concerning the delicious cuisine.

But the highlight of the gala, and to the astonishment of the guest, was the acrobatic performance itself.

Cirque de Chine combines acrobatic skills with dance, dazzling costumes, music and lights, in presenting a first class and fabulous Chinese acrobatic show. The international triple gold medal winners of the Pagoda of Bowls and the Diabolo acts left a lasting impression on the audience. The finale, the Flying Motorcyclist, who made the Guinness Book of World Records, brought the guest to their feet with shouts, screams and applause that filled the theater and didn’t fade away until after the last curtain call.