What do most people see in a bubble? Do they notice its delicacy, liquidity, elasticity and reflections of light? Fan Yang sees beyond that in bubbles. He sees their soul.

The world-renowned soap bubble master, Fan Yang, has elevated this daily child"s play to a new field of artistry. Bubbles of Yang"s creation dance to the music, fly and pop according to their master"s gesture or a whisp of air out of his mouth. However it may seem, Yang says that he is the one that reacts to the bubbles. They sensitively change their form, direction and longevity to different environments. Thus, his performance is somewhat intuitive as each bubble has a character of its own.

Yang, son of a Vietnamese-American mother and a Hungarian father, is a maestro who has made inroads into the art of bubbles. He holds several Guinness world records: In 1992 he created the biggest spherical soap bubble 3 meters in circumference; in 1997 the world"s longest bubble wall 4,740 meters in length; in 1999 his daughter"s sliding into a bubble hemisphere without bursting it; and in 2001 he set another record of the most bubbles inside bubbles with 12 concentric bubbles.

Through seven years of study, Fan Yang has found the perfect formula for mixing the soap solution so that the bubbles stay intact for a long period of time, thus less sensitive to alterations of the atmosphere.

In his Gymboree Mega Bubble Show from May 1 to 10 at Seoul Hanjeon Artspool Center, Yan creates delicate bubbles that expand and shrink to the master"s will, and his audiences watch in awe as he literally plays with the bubbles as if they were solid.

As a large bubble bounces up in the air, Yang creates a middle-sized bubble inside the previous one and next to it blows up a smaller smoky bubble. As he keeps these groups of bubbles in the air by blowing them from below with his hands, Yang inserts a straw through the outermost bubble and lets out air so that the smoky bubble travels around the middle-sized bubble. A whole new universe of bubbles is thus created with bubble planets revolving around one another. This is just a brief glance at his performance. The bubbles spring to life as lights fall on them and colors transcending those of the rainbow are reflected on their glimmering surfaces.

The performance comes to its pinnacle as bubbles of immense sizes, bigger than an adult, float in the air. Then Yang puts a stretched bubble over himself. The finale is decorated with hundreds of bubbles coming out at once from a double wand designed by Yang himself.

"I simply loved it, and that simple fact brought me all the way here. It is my fate." says Yang. It was not fame nor prosperity he followed, but his his dream.

neyessioui@ewha.ac.kr
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