Ning Cai (writer)

Ning Cai (born 16 October 1982) is a magician and a Singapore Literature Prize-nominated author.

Overview
Cai is best recognized for her illusionist/escapologist stage character Magic Babe Ning and was named by Channel News Asia as Southeast Asia's first professional female magician. Cai has been credited with popularizing magic in Singapore.

In October 2014, Cai announced her retirement from performing as Magic Babe Ning to focus on her writing career. Her 2016 Singapore Literature Prize nominated autobiography Who Is Magic Babe Ning? was published soon after. She made a brief return to magic as the Mind Magic Mistress in 2017.

Education
Cai was born in Singapore on 16 October 1982. She is the eldest of three sisters. She studied at Methodist Girls School and competed in the Australian in the Australian Mathematics Competition of 1997.

She attended Ngee Ann Polytechnic, where she studied a diploma in Film,Sound and Video, as she intended to work as a television producer and writer. NAP inducted Cai into their inaugural Hall of Fame in 2011, along with fellow graduates of the School of Film Media Studies, DJs Jamie Yeo and Justin Ang, one half of The Muttons.

Career in magic
Cai gained recognition for the magic tricks that she honed after watching David Copperfield and Princess Tenko from the age of 5. In 2006, she joined a local magic competition and was placed second runner up. This win fuelled her desire to become a full-time professional performer.

Cai was acknowledged as "Singapore’s only professional female magician" by publications including The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, The New Paper, My Paper, Mediacorp Channel 8 News and Lianhe Wanbao. She disliked being typecast as the typical female who only performed magic with silks, flowers or rabbits, so she incorporated fire-eating, samurai swords, fire balls and weapons in her shows. She also started an online magic shop, The Little Magic Shop.

In October 2014, after 10 years performing around the world, Cai announced that she would be retiring from her work as stage character Magic Babe Ning. She cited her upcoming wedding and her desire to focus on writing as reasons for her retirement.

Writing career


Cai collaborated with her longtime friend and mentor, John Teo, president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (Singapore) in creating an activity book Game of Thoughts: Understanding Creativity Through Mind Games, which comprised a series of 'brain teasers, puzzles conundrums, thought experiments and writing exercises'.

In 2016 she collaborated with Don Bosco in writing Magicienne, a novel featuring a young protagonist who has been described as a "younger version of Magic Babe".

In April 2018, Cai launched the first book of her young adult trilogy. Titled Misdirection, the first volume of the Savant Trilogy, it follows a parkour champion who awakes from a three-year coma and discovers that her family has been murdered by a killer still at large. Cai's original manuscript had been long-listed for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2016 and was subsequently reworked. The book spent six consecutive weeks on The Straits Times bestsellers list. Manipulation and Metamorphosis followed in 2021 and 2022.

Cai received an MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in November 2019

Literary influences
Cai has cited Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Elizabeth Watasin as influences.

Other projects
Cai has served as the creative director of Mighty Magic Lab, a kids edutainment company which focuses on empowering the creativity and confidence of children through magic, as well as delivering educational shows.

In 2015, Cai organized a local book hunt called #SG50books50days, an initiative to generate interest in reading books by local authors. Over the course of 50 days, she left 50 books from various authors at 50 different locations, to which she left clues via social media. Books published by local authors such as Neil Humphreys were among those found by those who managed to solve the clues.

She is also a committee member of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisation’s women’s register.