ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how acrobats' bodies and repertories are imbued with cultural meanings through the practices of nation-state building and international diplomacy. It demonstrates that in a cross-cultural context, new meanings of the acrobatic body could emerge from interactions between performers, audiences, journalists, host organizations, and other local participants. It discusses how acrobatics was attached to different meanings through the practices of nation-state building as well as international diplomacy during the Cold War era. China's acrobatic diplomacy prepared the groundwork for the acrobatic body to become a major cultural export in the following decades and marked the beginning of an export-oriented cultural production. As a cultural export, Americans and other overseas participants started to invest in the Chinese acrobatic body and to assign it meanings and value through their own cultural lenses.
