Xiangsheng (Comic Dialogue)
01 · Historical Records
It took shape in Beijing around the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns of the Qing dynasty, and afterwards spread widely through the northern regions, being most active in the Beijing-Tianjin area. It has now passed to the ninth generation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiangsheng is one of the most widespread and most popular genres of narrative arts, distinguished by its humour, its satire and its strongly theatrical character. Xiangsheng performance was originally divided into two kinds. Those staged behind a curtain were called “an Chun” (hidden spring) and consisted mainly of ventriloquism items; those performed in public were called “ming Chun” (open spring) and consisted mainly of spoken items. The open-spring forms of xiangsheng performance include three types: dan kou xiangsheng, performed by a single person; dui kou xiangsheng, performed by two; and qun kou xiangsheng, performed collectively by three or more — of which the paired form is the most common. Judged by the way a piece is staged, paired xiangsheng further divides into types such as the weighted-lead form (yi tou chen), the evenly matched form (zi mu gen) and the rapid recitation form (guan kou). In recent years new forms with strong comic colouring have appeared, such as costumed xiangsheng and xiangsheng sketches. The traditional repertoire of xiangsheng is extraordinarily rich. Among the pieces preserved through editing and tidying are solo works such as Promotion Through Three Ranks, Pearl, Jade and White Broth, Straightening a Candle Wick and Little Immortal; paired works such as Praising Your House, A Funeral Gathering, A Full Manchu-Han Banquet, Yellow Crane Tower, Guan Yu Fights Qin Qiong, A Miscellany on Theatre and Guessing Lantern Riddles; and group works such as The Waistcoat and The Adamantine Legs. Tianjin xiangsheng forms a school of its own: centred on speech, marked by satire, fiery and vigorous, and rich in humour. Works with a particularly strong satirical edge such as Zhang Shouchen's The Ministry of Jokes, Xia Mogu's The Tooth Powder Bag, and Ma Sanli's Opening a Congee Factory, Selling Fake Tickets and Buying a Monkey are representative of the Tianjin style. Tianjin's wen gen (literary) xiangsheng also has a long historical tradition, and a number of different performing schools have emerged in turn. Taking the traditional piece Wen Zhang Hui alone, several stage scripts have been used by such performers as Zhang Shouchen, Ma Sanli and Su Wenmao, each with a style of its own on stage.
Hidden spring and open spring
Hidden-spring performances were ventriloquial and behind a curtain; open-spring ones, the ancestor of modern xiangsheng, were spoken in public.
Solo, double and group
Solo, paired and group forms, the paired version being the most common on stage today.
Three types of paired dialogue
Paired routines divide into the weighted-lead type, the evenly matched type and the rapid recitation type.
Solo classics
The standard solo items, alongside the paired and group pieces that make up the classical repertoire.
The Ming Chun Qu and the great anthology
Jiang Kun wrote the narrative xiangsheng play Ming Chun Qu and edited the comprehensive anthology of traditional xiangsheng.
Jiang Kun and his pupils
A first-grade actor and chairman of the Chinese Quyi Artists Association, he has taken on over thirty pupils.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In the performance text of paired xiangsheng, the performers are divided into two, jia and yi: jia is responsible for the dou gen, leading the comedy, and yi for the peng gen, providing the supporting part.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiangsheng (Comic Dialogue) · Xiangsheng (Comic Dialogue).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today xiangsheng is gradually slipping towards the edge of “fast-food culture”, and under the influence of mass media it has become alienated to some degree. At present, training the next generation of performers has become the urgent task in the transmission and development of xiangsheng and calls for high priority. Jiang Kun (from the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of Han ethnicity, born in October 1950, native of Beijing. A first-grade actor and chairman of the Chinese Quyi Artists Association. His xiangsheng performance is marked by a readiness to innovate and to produce new work, based on the tradition yet striving to go beyond it, and it carries a strong sense of the times. He created the large-scale narrative xiangsheng play Ming Chun Qu and edited such works as the Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Xiangsheng and An Introduction to Chinese Quyi. He has taken more than thirty pupils, some of whom have become backbone members of the quyi profession. He actively disseminates the art of xiangsheng by holding special lectures, undertaking cultural exchange visits overseas and taking part in public-benefit social activities. He is a representative inheritor of xiangsheng, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fourth batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chang Baoting 03-1168
- Jiang Kun 04-1715
- Ma Zhiming 05-2504
- Zhao Yan
- Chang Baofeng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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