People: Mar. 24, 1986

"The Greatest Show on Earth" has drawn acts from everywhere on the globe, except the People's Republic of China. But this year the "plentitudes of pachyderm precision" at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus have been joined by "a charismatic, candescent constellation of allegiant acrobatics," by which the circus shills mean the 15-member Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. The booking took nearly 14 years of talks with the Peking government. To make their guests comfortable, the circus stocked up on rice "by the major bagful," built a special train car with a Chinese-style kitchen and put in a VCR on which...

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