"Guo Degang Phenomenon"

From the third to the eighth day of the first month in China's lunar calendar in the year of the dog (January 31 to February 5, 2006), people from Tianjin Municipality and Hebei and Shanxi provinces as well as every corner in Beijing flocked to the Guangde Lou teahouse inside Beijing's Qianmen Gate - just to enjoy the New Year Show of the Deyun group, a batch of artists dedicated to the time-honored art form of xiangsheng (comic dialogue). Before the performance, the ticket prices were three times higher in the hands of scalpers - rare for a traditional art form performance in recent years.

Even after the performance began at 7PM, many fans were still lingering outside the small theatre.

"So are the tickets for standing room available? If not, are any tickets for hanging room available? Because one nail could hang two guys," joked a spectator waiting outside the theater.

At the very moment, the atmosphere in the theater was rather raucous. The performers on the stage personified hilarity, causing the audience to split its pants in laughter.

"This is more than just a xiangsheng performance, but rather like a Spring Festival Party," said a young man, no older than 25.

It has just been this winter that Guo Degang has become a new household name in China, quite on a par with Zhang Yimou, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi. Off the screen, however, Guo has risen to popularity by word of mouth in teahouses, such as Beijing's Tianqiao Le and Guangde Lou, where he gives live performances of xiangsheng, a traditional Chinese comic talk show.

It has become a fashion among a lot of young people to go to the teahouse to enjoy to Guo's xiangsheng. What's more, mass media, whether TV, newspaper, or radio, have spared no effort in reporting about Guo. Websites about Guo also abound. People pay to listen to his comic dialogues because he and his colleagues make people relaxed, according to Guo. Today, his fans have to book tickets a few weeks in advance.

In Beijing, a regular ticket for a teahouse xiangsheng performance is 20 yuan (US$2.5 dollars), and in Tianjin it is only 10 yuan (US$1.2 dollars). Such a performance, lasting for three hours or so, usually consists of seven or eight pieces.

All these, as summarized by media, are known as the "Guo Degang phenomenon."

In Beijing, Guo Degang started small, in teahouses, but has now achieved nationwide fame. Today, not only are his performances in the Tianqiao Le Teahouse always booked full, but also his shows at big venues such as the Tianqiao Theater are also quickly sold out.

  Hardworking and persistent artist

Guo's success did not come by luck. Neither did he achieve fame overnight. Previously, Guo had been performing in Dazhanlan in Beijing for 10 years.

Guo began to learn storytelling at the age of eight in 1981 from storytelling artist Gao Xiangkai in Tianjin. Later he learned xihe dagu, a folk art form popular in Hebei and Henan provinces till he was 15. Guo values very much those years of learning.

Just like many other noted xiangsheng performing artists, Guo also went to Beijing in the hope of pursuing a better career. However, he couldn't get enrolled into State-run troupes, and had to do various odd jobs to survive for a period of time.

Guo said he almost forgot about his own vocation, until one day he passed a teahouse where there was a xiangsheng show by some unknown performers.

From then on, he often went there to listen to the performances and later began to perform with them. That was in 1996. The first few years were very difficult for Guo. In the most embarrassing situation, there was only one person in the audience. Guo and his companions persisted. He did other jobs to support his performance.

Even though he has studied xiangsheng since childhood, Guo finds it very difficult to keep up with. "A master may trigger people to laugh with some words, but a student may fail even if he says the exact same words," said Guo.

"There is something 'hi-tech' about it," he said, adding, "Xiangsheng is in my blood. I'm full of gratitude to it, for all my other work benefits from it."

Thirty-three-year-old Guo belongs to the young generation who are more adaptable to their times. Today, the performances of his Deyun group have not only won acclaim from common fans, but have also attracted white-collar workers and people from cultural circles.

Busy as he is with various invitations, Guo still has many plans, such as opening his shows at universities, compiling a collection of traditional xiangsheng works, and putting on a play in the style of folk comedy dialogue.

"Modern people are often under much pressure, and need to relax," said Guo. "Everybody can speak, but why do you pay to listen to me? Because I can make you happy with my xiangsheng," Guo said.

  Old comedy stirs up new laughs

Comedians are attracting an increasing audience not only with low prices but also with their ingenuity in poking fun at everyday incidents. And if visitors happen to be in a taxi in North China's Tianjin from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, they will very likely be listening to a radio program called "Everyday Xiangsheng."

Xiangsheng is one of the best-liked forms of entertainment in North China, and "Everyday Xiangsheng" is among the most popular radio programs in Tianjin. "I tune in to the program every day," said taxi driver Liu Xingyi. "Listening to xiangsheng makes me relaxed, even when I work for long hours."

For Yin Xiaosheng, 68, lead performer with the popular Zhong You group in Tianjin, there was a time in the early 1990s when he thought his beloved traditional show was dying. The comic talk show, which appeared in teahouses in the late 19th century Beijing, was turned into a stage art as part of variety shows in theaters after New China was founded. The performers became theater artists, while the number of teahouses also dwindled, as the catering business was not encouraged.

Comic talks enjoyed some popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but still as a part of TV or theater variety shows. And in the 1990s, "very few even talked about xiangsheng," Yin recalled, as many younger performers became TV hosts or played roles in short comic theatrical skits. Guo Degang - a new boast to an ancient comic dialogue

But Yin and a few of his elderly colleagues decided they must not give it up. They returned to a small teahouse called Yanle in Tianjin in 1999, not to make money but to continue the tradition of xiangsheng. Yin also co-founded the troupe, Zhong You. To his surprise, their performances were warmly welcomed, and they were soon invited to perform in other teahouses such as Mingliu and Qianxiangyi.

At first, their audiences were mostly senior people, but young people gradually took more seats. Today, listening to xiangsheng has become chic for many young people in Tianjin. It is even hard for elderly people to go to Mingliu and Qianxiangyi, where young people often book all the tickets.

Now Yanle is Tianjin's only teahouse where mainly senior audiences frequent the comic talk shows. This is fitting, because Yanle is located at Nanshi, an old area of Tianjin that was once the center of xiangsheng in the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, Yanle charges only eight yuan (US$1) for a show ticket plus a cup of tea, which is cheaper than the regular price of 10 yuan in other teahouses.

Yanle can only hold about 100 people, and after paying the venue's rent, the performers have very little left for their income.

"We had thought of giving up Yanle several times, but we couldn't make the decision," said Yin. "Zhong You means 'friends of the audience,' and we should serve all kinds of audience, including senior people."

Zhong You offers a repertoire of mostly traditional works. In contrast, Haha Xiao, another well-known group in Tianjin, has come up with more new works to keep up with the times.

"Xiangsheng is a most up-to-date form of performance," said Ma Shuchun, director of the Haha Xiao group. "We pay much attention to creating new works and injecting new elements into traditional works."

While the performers are writing new works, more people have come forward to offer ideas for original works on the Internet. Ma and his partner Tong Youwei won the first prize in the first Internet Xiangsheng Competition of China in 2004 with a new work titled "The Olympic Dream," written by Lila, host of a BBS at the "Zhonghua Xiangsheng Net" (www.xiangsheng.org). 

Tong and Ma have performed a number of works posted on the Internet by amateur writers. Most of them are about contemporary life, such as "Western Food" and "Artificial Beauty." After Tong and Ma's amendments, some of these works have been welcomed by the audience and have become part of the duo's standard repertory.

Offering new works is not the Internet's only contribution to xiangsheng. Ma said he had benefited more from the Internet. "The Internet provides substantial information, which helps me greatly in researching and writing works," said Ma. "Sometimes I also post my recordings on the Internet for netizens to comment on, so that I can keep improving."

Now the Haha Xiao group gives 13 performances in teahouses every week, which tops all the folk talk show groups in Tianjin. "Among theaters, teahouses, and the TV, I like to perform in teahouses the most," said Ma. "The close distance between the performers and audience provides much room for interaction, and the performers can improvise sometimes according to the situation."

  Fall and rise of comic talk

Xiangsheng originated in Beijing in the second half of the 19th century, when the performers began to appear and attract audiences at Beijing's Tianqiao area. Usually only two people perform xiangsheng, though sometimes one person or even a trio can perform it.

Beijing and Tianjin have been the two most important bases for the show. Beijing has given birth to such great performers as Hou Baolin (1917-1993), while Tianjin has contributed masters like Ma Sanli (1914-2003).

In the first half of the 20th century, xiangsheng was mainly performed in teahouses. After the founding of New China in 1949, most of the comedians were recruited into State-run performing arts troupes, and comic talk shows in teahouses gradually disappeared.

However, with teahouses mushrooming in recent years, there has been a revival.