No more elephant and monkey acts. No more death-defying motorbike stunts. Several hundred spectators still clapped constantly when acrobats with Dongchoon Circus Troupe, South Korea’s last and 100-year-old circus, twirled on a long suspended fabric, juggled clubs on a large, rotating wheel and rode a unicycle on a tightrope under the big top.

Founded in 1925, Dongchoon is Korea’s oldest circus. In the golden ages in the 1960s when most households still had no TVs, Dongchoon travelled across the country, wowing audiences with then exotic animals like an elephant and a giraffe and a variety of shows including skits, comic talks, singing, dancing and magic shows. 

At its peak years, it had more than 200 artists, acrobats and other staff. However, over the years, TVs and movies later syphoned off the audiences of Dongchoon and other circuses in South Korea.