FOR decades, huajixi, or Shanghai farce, entertained generations with their stories about ordinary people. But like many other traditional arts, this form of theater is slowly losing its appeal with the younger generation more in tune with fast-paced entertainment.

This year marks the 110th anniversary of Shanghai farce, essentially a comedy act that thrived in the Yangtze River Delta region.

A recent performance by the Shanghai Farce Troupe, “The Unhurried Emperor and the Impatient Eunuchs,” was hailed by both critics and audiences. More importantly, it regenerated enthusiasm as well as concerns about the future of this local art form.

The play — about the lives of single people — focuses on the attitudes of today’s young people toward dating and marriage. It is also a reflection of the increasing stress and pressure from their parents facing “leftover” young people in urban China.

When the show debuted in March, theater-goers kept bursting into laughter.

In the performance, classic folk songs and pop songs were remixed with Shanghai dialect and modern musical elements.

Director Yu Jie attributes the success of the show to its close emotional connection with the audience of today.

“Shanghai farce is an art of laughing,” Yu says. “Only when the story is based on the true lives and feelings of average people, it can resonate with them.”

The play’s scriptwriter, Liang Dingdong, paid many visits to the People’s Park for a vivid and amusing script. The park has now become a matchmaking venue for parents to show information of their marriage-age children to find Mr or Mrs Right. He spent much time interviewing “desperate” parents there. All the first-hand materials made a solid script.

The show is not a single effort of the Shanghai Farce Troupe to revive the age-old art form. Last year, it presented an original absurdist drama “Zero Hero.”

The show was directed by famous Hong Kong stage actor, comedian and director Chim Sui-man. It was an experimental attempt of the troupe to stage a Shanghai-dialect huajixi totally in Mandarin.

“Zero Hero” tells a story of two young men who are trapped in a village in desert. They have to rely on lies to solve the crisis. Different from large amount of dialogues used in traditional farce, Chim brought his distinctive modern stage elements of humor, physical movement and fashion to the show about humanity and human emotions.

Ling Meifang, director of Shanghai Farce Troupe, told media in an earlier interview that years ago scriptwriting was a very big challenge for them. But in recent years, they have nurtured a batch of down-to-earth young scriptwriters whose stories are modern, creative and created from a perspective of young people.

Originated in Shanghai in the early 20th century, huajixi is a comprehensive performing art which combines monologue, dialogue, improvisation, interaction, mime, traditional opera, folk entertainment and other elements on stage. In 2011 it was included on the list of the nation’s intangible cultural heritage.

Shanghai farce experienced golden time between the 1940s and 1960s and in the 1980s, but the decline of the theater began in the mid-1990s when local people started to have more entertainment options from pop culture.

The major state-owned farce troupes in the city are the Shanghai Farce Troupe, the Shanghai People’s Farce Company, and the Shanghai Qingyi Farce Troupe.

Three decades ago, performers and crew members in the three troupes totaled more than 1,000, but now fewer than 100 people work full-time.

Every year only around 10 new farce plays are created and presented. Lack of young actors and new scripts severely limit the development of farce.

According to renowned farce artist Tong Shuangchun, scripts for Shanghai farce used to be created by performers on their own. But now it seems difficult for the busy performers to settle down to literary and artistic creation.

Not easy to be a performer

Shanghai Farce Troupe is the only company in the field that has full-time scriptwriters, who received professional training at theater academies.

But they still need practice to truly understand the characteristics of huajixi. They are also supposed to be very sensitive to city news and gossips.

Since the Shanghai farce features comic elements of monologues, dialogues, teasing and dancing, the performer is required to be versatile and have all-round skills in dialects, mime, improvisation and ballad storytelling.

Industry insiders note that it is time-and energy-consuming to foster a good actor with superb comedic sense. But the actors usually don’t get a big payoff from the performances.

So many of them turn to easier TV sitcoms and shows for more media exposure and higher returns. In the long run, it will hamper the development of huajixi as the market will continue to shrink and audience will become more and more reluctant to pay for a farce performance.

To reduce the cost of each performance, Wang Rugang, a veteran Shanghai farce artist and director of the Shanghai People’s Farce Company, calls for a specific and exclusive performing venue for comedy theater in the city.

Last year the company’s show “He Has A Day Off” was staged at Yifu Theater. It received financial support from the China National Arts Fund. But not all the modern farce plays are that lucky.

“An exclusive and regular theater will help nurture audiences and develop a trend of attending farce shows among the young generation,” Wang says. “The newly renovated Shanghai Great World is such an ideal place as it is a landmark entertainment complex of the city.”

The decline of Shanghai dialect is another challenge facing Shanghai farce which uses a lot of local dialect in its performances. As a matter of fact, it now becomes more difficult for the city’s young generation to understand and speak genuine Shanghai dialect since Mandarin is required in schools.

Theater experts also suggest schools offer students more interactive courses and activities in local dialect, storytelling and ballad singing. Shanghainese, in their eyes, is part of the city’s distinctive culture and charm, and its decline threatens many local theaters such as huajixi and Huju Opera.

Over the past decade, lots of farce artists including Wang, Mao Mengda and Qian Cheng have been trying to win a place for the traditional farce performance on the annual China Central Television Spring Festival Gala.

But their acts were all dropped from the showcase event and replaced by a crosstalk show, a style of comedy traditionally more popular among people in northern China.

Even in the popular televised reality competition series of comedy stars, it is hard for Shanghai farce performers to stand out as the judges are mostly from northern China who can’t understand the delicacy and trademark humor of Shanghai dialect.

Chen Daming, critic and theater expert from the Shanghai Dramatists Association, says Shanghai farce has its unique cultural value and appeal and it is not necessary for the regional theater to feature in the gala. “Instead of increasing its media exposure, the theater should learn how to attract and nurture today’s audiences,” Chen says.

“Shanghai farce artists should focus on artistic creation in scripts and performing styles. They must spend more time on stage rather than on TV screen to revive the art. Some old ways of the art form to amuse and entertain audiences should be updated today. Additionally, the stories must relate to ordinary people’s lives and concerns,” he notes.