I guess I’m such a cynic at this point I read something like this and just wonder how people come to spend so much time on learning something like high wire walking that they actually become good at it. I suppose, for those who do spend their lives learning such things, it’s good they have competitions like the High Wire Championships, which took place in Seoul yesterday.

Here’s your winner, Yakefujang Maimitili, a Chinese guy of Uighur heritage, who, following in his ethnic family’s tradition in Xinjiang, has been tightrope walking since he was seven.

“I was really excited while I was walking on the rope,” Maimitili said Saturday.

I’m sure.

Organizer Kwon Won-tae, a professional tightrope walker who did the stunt work in the film, also competed this week. He credited the competition with keeping the tradition of tightrope walking alive, and said he hopes to eventually compete in communist North Korea.

“Sometime in the future, I want to hold this high-wire championship across the Taedong River in Pyongyang,” North Korea’s capital, he said Saturday.

Oh, dare to dream Won-tae.  I’m sure that’d bring hordes out in appreciation. Hopefully Kim Jong-il will be healthy enough to attend.  

Yahoo! has a whole photo album from the event here.