Old storytellers can still spin a good yarn
By Yang Jian |
June 18, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PINGSHU, a form of ancient dialect storytelling, is a cultural traditional in Fotang Old Town south of Yiwu. The venerable Xinhua Theater there is the best place to take in this delightful, if dying, folk art.
True, the stories are told in a local dialect that can be hard for Mandarin speakers to understand, but the motions of the storyteller and his compelling tone and rhythms make the experience worthwhile.
The storyteller is usually a man of about 50 years who sits in front of a table and holds a long, thick bamboo stem - a rare instrument even for storytellers in Yiwu. He uses the stem to accentuate his tragic, exciting and romantic stories.
Every time a story nears its climax, he pauses to sip tea, drawing mild catcalls from an audience keen to hear the ending.
Older generation
Older people generally dominate the audiences. They sit around dozens of square little tables placed in the theater, munching fried sunflower seeds. They frequently laugh, sometimes applaud and even close their eyes to listen in a sleep-like state.
The theater was the most popular venue in town when it was built in the 1954.
"There were always over 1,000 people squeezed into the 800-square-meter theater to listen to the storytelling," said Chen Yunquan, a 60-year-old local.
At that time, admission was only 1.5 jiao (2.4 US cents), and people paid only one jiao if they were willing to stand during the performance.
The wood-structure theater stands in the middle of town. On its gate is a plaster sculpture of a worker, farmer and soldier standing in solidarity together - a popular icon of that era. Red lanterns hang from the interior beams, just as they did a half century ago.
With the advent of television and more popular forms of modern entertainment, interest in ancient storytelling has fallen by the wayside, Chen said.
Audiences have thinned considerably. Nowadays, storytelling is performed twice a day at the theater, and there is no admission charge. The exception is October 10, when Yiwu holds its annual folk-art day with many performances of pingshu and traditional operas.
True, the stories are told in a local dialect that can be hard for Mandarin speakers to understand, but the motions of the storyteller and his compelling tone and rhythms make the experience worthwhile.
The storyteller is usually a man of about 50 years who sits in front of a table and holds a long, thick bamboo stem - a rare instrument even for storytellers in Yiwu. He uses the stem to accentuate his tragic, exciting and romantic stories.
Every time a story nears its climax, he pauses to sip tea, drawing mild catcalls from an audience keen to hear the ending.
Older generation
Older people generally dominate the audiences. They sit around dozens of square little tables placed in the theater, munching fried sunflower seeds. They frequently laugh, sometimes applaud and even close their eyes to listen in a sleep-like state.
The theater was the most popular venue in town when it was built in the 1954.
"There were always over 1,000 people squeezed into the 800-square-meter theater to listen to the storytelling," said Chen Yunquan, a 60-year-old local.
At that time, admission was only 1.5 jiao (2.4 US cents), and people paid only one jiao if they were willing to stand during the performance.
The wood-structure theater stands in the middle of town. On its gate is a plaster sculpture of a worker, farmer and soldier standing in solidarity together - a popular icon of that era. Red lanterns hang from the interior beams, just as they did a half century ago.
With the advent of television and more popular forms of modern entertainment, interest in ancient storytelling has fallen by the wayside, Chen said.
Audiences have thinned considerably. Nowadays, storytelling is performed twice a day at the theater, and there is no admission charge. The exception is October 10, when Yiwu holds its annual folk-art day with many performances of pingshu and traditional operas.
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