b**********n
发帖数: 2812 | 1 ‘Who’s on First?’ Finds a Home in Chinese Clubs
By BENJAMIN HAAS
BEIJING — Guo Degang, wearing sunglasses at night, strutted into the club
followed by an entourage of sharply dressed men and was shown to an elegant
private dining room in the back. He sat down and held court as friends from
out of town presented him with gifts of liquor, rare mushrooms and artwork.
It could have been a scene out of a Chinese version of “The Godfather,”
but Mr. Guo is more Ricky Gervais than Don Corleone.
He is a comedian who specializes in a traditional form of performance comedy
called cross talk that has undergone a revival recently, largely because of
Mr. Guo’s antics. Chinese media have dubbed him “the savior of cross talk
” for attracting young and middle-aged audience members to the aging cross
talk crowd.
But while the rejuvenated art form has been promoted by the government on
some heavily watched television programs, subversive comedians sometimes use
it to throw barbs at Chinese politics and society. Mr. Guo, a doughy-faced
37-year-old with a closely shaved head, is seen as a people’s hero for his
populist humor, which skewers the police, bureaucrats and celebrities.
“I’m excited to say some things that weren’t allowed on the radio, that
television stations wouldn’t air,” was how Mr. Guo began one show in a
teahouse, followed by a hearty round of applause.
“Cops beat people just to beat them, yell at people just to yell at them,
more viciously than any hoodlum,” he continued. “Meanwhile, gangsters are
polite. They’ll help you when you need it. So, who’s the gangster and who
’s the cop?”
The Chinese word for cross talk is “xiangsheng,” literally “face and
voice.” The art form began during the Qing Dynasty in Beijing as street art
. Jokes dealt with familiar themes: troublesome in-laws, regional
stereotypes and impersonations. Creative puns were the norm.
Performed in teahouses throughout northern China, it usually consists of two
performers dressed in traditional garb engaging in witty banter. Think
Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First?” One example is a dialogue
between a theater director working in Europe and an old friend. The director
’s play is about “the three kingdoms,” or in his mind, France, Germany
and Italy. But the friend understands it to mean the Three Kingdoms period
of Chinese history. Confusion ensues, and audiences laugh.
Throughout cross talk’s history, performers have come from humble
backgrounds. Aspiring comedians from poor families studied under a master
for three years and performed with the teacher for one season before
striking out on their own.
Mr. Guo seems to fit this mold. He started studying cross talk at age 7 and
never finished junior high school. In 1995, he left his hometown of Tianjin
to open his first club in Beijing.
In recent years, Mr. Guo’s popularity has exploded, and he leads more of a
movie-star life than most of his peers. He has opened two more restaurant
clubs in Beijing and has appeared in several blockbuster Chinese movies.
From his cross talk shows alone, his income last year was estimated to
exceed 20 million renminbi, or about $3 million.
But masters like Ding Guangquan, 76, who has appeared on China Central
Television’s Lunar New Year gala — the most watched event of the Chinese
television calendar — see cross talk increasingly marginalized by political
controls and the Internet. Other cross talk elders say the money associated
with the form’s popularity has commercialized the shows, watering down the
traditional wit.
At the height of the Cultural Revolution, cross talk was exclusively used as
a propaganda tool.
“You can’t laugh at how wonderful Chairman Mao is,” said David Moser,
academic director of the CET Beijing Chinese Studies program in Beijing, who
wrote his master’s thesis at the University of Michigan on cross talk and
has been performing on and off for 20 years. “But there was a technique
throughout the whole Mao period called ‘putting on the hat and shoes,’
where you start the piece with some revolutionary praising of the party,
then you do business as usual, and then at the end you stick on something”
revolutionary.
When the Cultural Revolution ended, cross talk performers immediately
criticized the Gang of Four, releasing years of pent-up political
frustration. But a brief period of openness was quickly quashed.
Today, cross talk topics as innocuous as Beijing’s notoriously congested
traffic are forbidden on TV or radio.
“There are a lot of jokes about fake products and tainted food, but none of
it gets put on the Internet,” lamented Chu Yang, 31, an avid cross talk
fan who travels to Tianjin to see more provocative performances. “If those
were put up, everyone would watch them and the videos would get removed
immediately.”
Even traditionalists like Mr. Ding, who has been performing for nearly 40
years, acknowledged that cross talk faced fierce competition from online
entertainment. The anonymity of the Internet means political humor posted on
a blog is far more candid than a cross talk routine.
In recent years, several prominent celebrities have bemoaned cross talk’s
decline because of censorship. Mark “Dashan” Rowswell, a Canadian
television celebrity in China who gained fame through cross talk, rarely
performs anymore. In a 2005 interview with the Chongqing Evening News, Mr.
Rowswell said cross talk had become too scripted and had lost its way since
going from street art to television spectacle.
Last year, Han Han, China’s most popular blogger and an outspoken critic of
the government, declared “cross talk has been utterly destroyed” in a
since deleted blog post about the political correctness of the televised New
Year’s show.
Even Mr. Guo’s immense popularity could not shield him after one of his
assistants got in a brawl with a Beijing television reporter last summer.
As retribution, China Central Television used a government campaign intended
to stamp out “vulgarity” in the entertainment industry to highlight some
of Mr. Guo’s more lewd jokes. His clubs were temporarily closed and his
books and CDs were whisked off bookstore shelves.
Just as the advent of movies greatly contributed to vaudeville’s decline in
the 1930s, Chinese people’s access to more outspoken forms of
entertainment may one day relegate cross talk to the status of obscure folk
art.
“Before, cross talk was a way to communicate with people, to educate people
,” Mr. Ding said. “It had to be as good as listening to the radio or
reading a book. But today, those performing cross talk are just doing it for
the money.” | b**********n
发帖数: 2812 | | L*********d
发帖数: 7037 | 3 上别的没人看。
【在 b**********n 的大作中提到】
: 只要被zf迫害过，就能上
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 4 祝贺。金子总会发光
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【在 b**********n 的大作中提到】
: ‘Who’s on First?’ Finds a Home in Chinese Clubs
: By BENJAMIN HAAS
: BEIJING — Guo Degang, wearing sunglasses at night, strutted into the club
: followed by an entourage of sharply dressed men and was shown to an elegant
: private dining room in the back. He sat down and held court as friends from
: out of town presented him with gifts of liquor, rare mushrooms and artwork.
: It could have been a scene out of a Chinese version of “The Godfather,”
: but Mr. Guo is more Ricky Gervais than Don Corleone.
: He is a comedian who specializes in a traditional form of performance comedy
: called cross talk that has undergone a revival recently, largely because of
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 5 郭德刚可笑么？
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 祝贺。金子总会发光
:
: elegant
: from
: .
: comedy
: of
: talk
: cross
: use
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 6 你见了胡某，点头哈腰
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 郭德刚可笑么？
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 7 你这个可笑么？
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 你见了胡某，点头哈腰
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 8 不，你看了我说的事实，哭了
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 你这个可笑么？
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 9 你妈美丽温柔善良
小腿很白
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 不，你看了我说的事实，哭了
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 10 看了欧说的事实，笑乐
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 你妈美丽温柔善良
: 小腿很白
| | | A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 11 这是胡某对你说的
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 你妈美丽温柔善良
: 小腿很白
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 12 鸭子你装作没妈是没有用的
鸭子的母亲温柔美丽善良
小腿很白
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 这是胡某对你说的
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 13 胡某抱着你妈的脚，说了下面的话
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 鸭子你装作没妈是没有用的
: 鸭子的母亲温柔美丽善良
: 小腿很白
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 14 你就老老实实当鹦鹉
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 胡某抱着你妈的脚，说了下面的话
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 15 你要面对现实
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 你就老老实实当鹦鹉
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 16 跟你说了还日事孤雄升值的
你悲愤也没有用
鸭子的母亲小腿很白
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 你要面对现实
| A*******e
发帖数: 12486 | 17 现实
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 跟你说了还日事孤雄升值的
: 你悲愤也没有用
: 鸭子的母亲小腿很白
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 18 你悲愤有用
你还是老老实实跟着还日孤雄分裂
要不然鸭子的母亲小腿就很白
【在 A*******e 的大作中提到】
: 现实
|
|
