How to say "juggling" in Chinese?

[YuehanHao]

Hi, I have been wondering for some time about how to express the concept of "juggling" in Chinese. I have seen possibilities in dictionaries, such as 变戏法,耍,和把戏; but all of these words seem to also have other meanings (based on my search), for example:

变戏法 can also mean to conjure (e.g., perform magic)

耍 can also mean to play

把戏 can also mean acrobatics

If I just wanted to say, without any extra context, "I juggle," then what would be the clearest way to do it, so that people will not think I might also be a magician or an acrobat or maybe a playa? Thanks!

约翰好

[HashiriKata]

I see what you mean and I hope a native speaker can help you. The following sentence is from wenlin, which is the best I've been able to find for you:

那个小丑正在拿球耍把戏

The clown is juggling with balls

[studentyoung]

If I just wanted to say, without any extra context, "I juggle," then what would be the clearest way to do it, so that people will not think I might also be a magician or an acrobat or maybe a playa? Thanks!

我拿着XX（物品）在手上一抛一接

Thanks!

[self-taught-mba]

Can also say this:

pao1 qiu2 za3 ji4

don't know characters of course. za3 ji4 or Acrobatics doesn't always mean what we think of, but a general term much like wu3 shu4 is general and yun4 dong4 for any kind of sport. in this case we know you are not flying around on a bar it means a kind of physical skill/talent--also the meaning of pao1 qiu2 is very ming2 xian3 (obvious)

[imron]

This is one of those things that just doesn't have a good direct translation, and I'm yet to find one word that can be used as universally as the word "juggling" can be used in English. 抛球 is one word that is used 杂耍 is another, however different people in different places might not understand exactly what it is you do if you tell them these words.

Maybe the best idea is just to always carry juggling balls on you, so you can demonstrate Sometimes I've found this to be the easiest way

[HashiriKata]

This is one of those things that just doesn't have a good direct translation, and I'm yet to find one word that can be used as universally as the word "juggling" can be used in English.

I think you're quite right, imron. Even wenlin didn't quite get it (see their example & translation I quoted above), and you'll just have to use many words to describe what it's about (along the line the example which studentyoung gave, or something similar with 边抛边接).

Well, I'll have to get going...

[YuehanHao]

Thank you for your help, everyone!

约翰好

[kudra]

Take the string

vova and olga galchenko

and stick it into baidu.

Only one hit originally in Chinese.

http://zh.wikipedia.openfun.org/wiki/%E9%9B%9C%E6%8A%80

That should be pretty close to "the answer" (IMO)

and then go watch some of their videos

http://www.galchenko.com/

[imron]

The problem is that the article makes use of several terms, and those terms either cover a broad range of activities that wouldn't be classed as juggling in English, or they are terms that if you mention it to a native speaker, they still might not know specifically what you mean until you explain it futher.

For example, the title of the page is 雜技 which also includes acrobatics and the like, and if you mention to a Chinese person that you do 雜技, the first thing that will probably come to mind is that you can do backflips and somersaults, rather than your actual meaning of being able to throw objects around without dropping them. Later on, it uses the terms 物件操控雜技 and 丢掷技 which seem quite nice, but for many Chinese people, if they see or hear these words outside of the context of an article on juggling, they'll not have any idea of what you're talking about.

As for the Galchenkos, yes they are amazing, but also further proof of lack of an appropriate and versatile word for juggling, because for them, words like 抛球 are really quite an inaccurate description of what they do

Finally, just to clarify, the problem as I see it is not being unable to explain to Chinese what juggling is, but rather that there doesn't seem to be just one word that describes this action as well as the English word juggling, so explaining that you are a juggler is something that usually involves a few sentences explanation (or possibly a small demonstration ), rather than just a single word.

[kudra]

my bad. The other problem with the article that I should have realized before is that the galchencko's also do some tumbling, and general clowning around, which will "contaminate" the vocabulary in the article.

Is there a tradition of juggling, even as a niche skill, in Chinese opera? What little Chinese opera I've seen I can't remember any.

What about less high brow, more folksy drama troupes, street performers and the like. In the West, there is a long tradition of clowns and jesters, with juggling one of their associated skills. What about China?

I just watched the first minute or 2 of Crouching Tiger where Michele Yeoh's character rides through a street scene with street performers. Opera, tumbling, and balancing, but I didn't see any jugglers. If it was a scene with street performers in medevial Europe, I'd expect to see jugglers.

[in_lab]

I've never seen Chinese acrobatic troupes juggle. But there might be some interesting vocabulary for the other things they do, like throwing the pot on the head, spinning the cloth on the foot, spinning dishes, and contortionism (is that a word?).

[imron]

I've seen some pretty good Chinese juggling, but, with the exception of rudimentary 3 ball juggling, most Chinese juggling seems to occur as part of acrobatics. In fact if you go to any given acrobatic show, you're almost certain to see some.

This I think is the key to the entire problem, namely that juggling in China rarely exists outside of the acrobatic world and so an accurate word just for juggling doesn't exist in most people's vocabulary unless they have some specialist knowledge in acrobatic terminology.

In my experience, juggling as a hobby seems to be fairly undeveloped in China, when compared to say Europe/US/Australia, and is rather seen as a specialist skill as a part of acrobatics.

Since I first time I went to China (over 5 years ago now) I've been trying to find a good word for juggling, usually by doing a bit of juggling and then asking a Chinese person what is the best word to describe what I've been doing. The problem is, if you juggle for 5 different Chinese people, you'll get 5 different words for what it should be called.