Juliana Chen (b.?)

Profile

Chen Zhi Ling

Aliases

The World's First Lady of

Magic

Occupation

Magician

Place of Birth

China

Height

5' 4"

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Abilities

Juliana Chen possesses supreme manipulation skills in card magic. Her specialty is card flourishing and scaling (throwing). Chen has the capacity to scale a stream of cards at incredible distances. Aside from her sleight-of-hand wizardry, she also captivates audiences with her jaw-dropping illusions flavored with dance, music and theatrics.

Bio

At first Chen was trained in ballet, then later she moved on to acrobatics and juggling. As a teenager, she toured internationally with the famous Gungzhou Acrobatic Troupe.

After a couple of accidents which injured the same leg, she was advised by doctors to give up foot juggling.

While she was recovering she saw the famous Japanese magician Shimada on television. Chen was fascinated by the way he had integrated magic into his Asian culture.

He was both unique and outstanding in his performance. Two years later, after winning a major international award in Salt Lake City, she sold her graphics Over the next four years, Chen won numerous magic competitions in Europe.

The Gungzhou's troupe manager encouraged Juliana to develop as a magician. She also took a closer interest in the skill of the troupe's magician. Secretly, she began practising her skill with cards and ping-pong balls--the easiest props for her to find at the time.

The ambidextrous Chen had the ability, ambition and determination to succeed. Some four years later in 1986, she was recognized as the best magician in China when she won the All-China Best Magician competition.

Juliana Chen's desire to take her magic to the international level led her to apply for permission to study English in Canada. In 1988, she left China for Vancouver, Canada.

There was not much work for magicians so she got a job in a furniture store while she studied English. Later she started her own graphics business. In 1990, Juliana Chen met a friend who introduced her to the local magic stores and The Vancouver Magic Circle--

the largest magical society in Canada.

She became the first woman, and first magician of Chinese heritage, to win a world title for a solo act in the 50-year history of The World Congress of Magicians. She was now The World's First Lady of Magic.

On her return to North America, Chen was featured on the cover of MAGIC magazine and included in The World's Greatest Magic IV, an NBC-TV special which is still seen in different countries around the world, A year later, Canada's leading TV current affairs program, The Fifth Estate, featured Juliana in a 12-minute profile.

They called her "The hottest new magician around." That same year, ABC Television featured Chen in a special called Champions of Magic hosted by Princess Stephanie of Monaco.

In the fall of 2002, Chen moved to Las Vegas to take her career to the next level. That October, she was awarded the Chavez Memorial Cup. She was recognized for her professional excellence by the Chavez Committee of the Society of American Magicians' Hall of Fame and Museum in Hollywood.

The award was established in the memory of Ben and Marion Chavez founders of the world-famous Chavez Studio of Magic which trained some of the world's leading magicians.

In the Spring of 2003, she was nominated for Stage Magician Of the Year by the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood. That summer she was the subject of a four-page cover story in Saturday Night, Canada's oldest-established magazine.

She became the first Canadian magician to be featured on the cover of a national magazine since the late Doug Henning in the mid-seventies.

Since winning the world championship, Chen's career has blossomed around the world particularly in Europe, Asia and the USA. She has played traditional variety theatres like the London Palladium and the Princess Grace Theatre in Monte Carlo, Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Tiger Palast in Frankfurt, NHK theatre in Japan, and the Berlin Wintergarten.

For more information see Juliana's website.

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