The Prosperity of Chinese Crosstalk in the 21st Century: Popular And Fan Culture Invade Chinese Folk-Art Forms (Quyi)

Posted: August 27th, 2021

The Prosperity of Chinese Crosstalk in the 21^st Century: Popular And Fan Culture Invade Chinese Folk-Art Forms (Quyi)

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 The prosperity of Chinese Crosstalk in the 21^st Century: Popular and Fan Culture Invade Chinese Folk-Art Forms (Quyi)

Introduction

Most art forms have won recognition and appreciation from local and international experts and novices in the contemporary world. In particular, such acknowledgment has resulted from varied rural artistic contents full of rich flavours and uniquely different westernized styles. Whereas many of these ancient art forms have faced extinction, the Chinese government and scholars have channelled their efforts towards reversing this trend. Instead, they have sought to promote this practice. Therefore, the proposed research seeks to examine the impact of pop culture on the modern-day Chinese crosstalk.

Research Background

           Folk-art forms are crucial elements to China since they offer a peek into the ancient Chinese culture. Even though some folk-art elements such as xiangsheng (literally meaning voice and face) have faced decline over time, the Chinese government has recently embarked on revamping the Chinese crosstalk (Wang, 2020). However, Deyunshe (a Chinese Crosstalk community) led by Guodegang (the most famous Crosstalk artist in China) seems the force behind the prosperity of the Chinese crosstalk in the 21st Century. Notably, the current performances by Deyunshe appear to integrate Chinese crosstalk with popular and fan culture to improve its acceptance to fans and the public (Artistic Chinese Creation, 2020). Therefore, the Chinese government has encouraged diverse talks on its rich folk-art forms to preserve its cultural and artistic heritage.

Literature Review

Origins of Crosstalk 

           The Chinese xiangsheng, often translated as crosstalk, is an important form of ancient folk art. For decades it has been declining but has recently gained prosperity, possibly due to pop culture’s influence. Initially, the Chinese crosstalk was a form of spoken comedy traced to North China and popularized by the Ming Dynasty. Crosstalk began as some form of imitation involving simulation of other people’s words and deeds. According to Tour (2020), North China’s folk opera further developed crosstalk by integrating other folk and forms. In the late Qing years, crosstalk transformed into the modern comic character and style drawing extensively from the techniques of ventriloquist, storytelling, and other art forms during the formation process. In this regard, Chinese crosstalk was an amalgamation of four skills, notably, speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing (Tour, 2020). Thus, during Ming and Qing dynasty era, the Chinese crosstalk was prosperous, but its performance has later declined rapidly.

Decline of Crosstalk

           The decline of Chinese crosstalk resulted from several factors, namely the deaths of famous performance and interferences by the government. Similarly, many renowned crosstalk artists died by the end of the 20th Century, thus threatening the crosstalk performance (Lawson, Sims, & Lawson, 2020). Nonetheless, Cai (2016) implicates the birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a major factor that exacerbates the decline of crosstalk performing arts than famous artists’ deaths. According to Huang (2018), sensitive crosstalk topics that touch on social ills such as fake products and tainted food seem common and censored on TV, radio, and online platforms. Indeed, such censorship discouraged many artists from performing crosstalk. It had become too scripted to lose its traditional lustre when censorship shifted from street art to televised spectacle intended to perpetuate political correctness (Huang, 2018). Adding to online censorship, personalized online content like political humour in candid blogs has contributed to the relegation of crosstalk, hence obscuring folk-art status. 

Resurgence of Crosstalk

           The transformation of the crosstalk from the indigenous social function of mass entertainment to a political tool for the ruling elite’s interests via mass media has further eroded the crosstalk. In the mid-1990s, crosstalk performance began disengaging from the political agenda. Rather, it seemingly resumed its traditional social function as a genuine satire (Cai, 2016). The downward trajectory began changing in 2005, being catalysed by Deyunshe and accelerated by Guodegang. The group turned the focus of crosstalk back to entertaining the masses as a form of social criticism, hence resurrecting the spirit of crosstalk successfully. As a result, such an act has enhanced commercialized performance in a market economy, leading to the deconstruction of the official discourse from grassroots to the top (Cai, 2017). With a high public following, Guodegang transformed himself into a crosstalk master and hero in the grassroots. However, he also attracted negative criticism because of many mundane themes, vulgar contents, and rude jokes that revolved around ethics, pornography, and prostitution (Cai, 2017). Consequently, the current evidence links the resurgence of the Chinese crosstalk to Guodegang, who transformed performance founded on social criticism. In this case, vulgarity was socially acceptable.

Influence of Pop or Fan Culture

           The increasing popularity of Guodegang and traditional Chinese crosstalk are among the most noticeable Chinese folk-art news. Unfortunately, Ai-dong (2007) has stated that the Chinese crosstalk lacked a general format since its traditions varied across different historical backgrounds. As a form of ancient folk art, Chinese crosstalk should be dynamic and adapt to different backgrounds. Thus, the current resurgence of crosstalk might be associated with popular and fan culture, representing Western culture. Unfortunately, substantial evidence to support such kind of influence does not exist.

Nonetheless, the literature on the blending of some pop culture elements and Chinese folk culture implies pop culture’s impact. Huang (2018) argues that combining folk culture with pop culture establishes a relationship between the modern China folk arts and the contemporary Chinese population. Since 1980 when pop culture began making inroads into China through literature, today’s art has permeated daily life-related activities. However, during the 1990s, the rapid development of the Chinese economy and art, pop culture, and folk culture underwent rapid growth that otherwise persisted in the mid-2000s as crosstalk re-emerged.

Pop culture predominates once in a lifetime in every society; therefore, influencing many aspects of folk culture. The culture is characterized by elements of social life that are most actively perpetuated by the public through dressing styles, use of slang, greeting rituals, and types of food (Huang, 2018). Mass media is an integral and the primary driver of pop culture. Originally, the Chinese crosstalk used to incorporate four elements into a performance, namely Shuo (speaking), Xue (mimicry), chang (singing), and dou (provoking of laughter). Although in the present performance, the audience does not play an active part in the account. Notably, artists are presumed to pause when joining with laughter (Lawson, 2020). Guodegang’s performances and popularity appear to appeal to the live performance and social media followers. Particularly, he knows that sticking to crosstalk tradition will not be a practical approach to re-popularize crosstalk. Therefore, Ai-dong (2007) claims that Guodegang’s popularity is individualized and not a representation of Chinese crosstalk like pop culture. Thus, crosstalk’s re-emergence is not a victory for the indigenous class, but the leisure-seeking youth class.

The most significant influence of pop culture is the loss of Chinese traditions and features. According to Cai (2016), current crosstalk performers lacked proper training and ability to perform the ancient folk art form because they seem to have lost the Chinese tradition’s inner part. Despite the loss of core Chinese culture features, pop culture has allowed crosstalk to get a wider local audience, extending outside China. Pop culture has commercialized performance and encouraged fans to spend on performances and related products such as novels and magazine articles about crosstalk. It has also influenced crosstalk as a tool for publicizing social evils such as homosexuality. While the current popularity of crosstalk is welcome because it provides a platform for other Chinese intangible cultural heritages, its prosperity remains unclear. Guodegang has grown to be a master of crosstalk to the extent that his name is synonymous with the topic (Cai, 2017). Although he trains many individuals through apprenticeship, one needs time to gain the mastery of Guodegang’s crosstalk skills. Therefore, such long is enough to enhance the eroding of some popularity. Since performing arts is dynamic, crosstalk’s prosperity depends on how well an artist incorporates the modern audience’s needs into crosstalk performance.

           In addition to pop culture, fan culture has invaded the Chinese crosstalk and further popularized it to a broader audience. Undeniably, the Chinese have a long history of using fans. The fan culture goes way back during the Shang Dynasty as fans were being used to relieve summer heat and showcase one’s social status. As time elapsed (especially through the Western Han Dynasty and Song Dynasty), the fans gained popularity and would be widely used by popular artists during live performances. According to Moser (2018), the Internet-driven fan culture played an essential role in crosstalk’s resurgence. Between the late 1990s and 2000s, there was the emergence of the Chinese Internet coupled with fan culture to promote xiangsheng’s rebirth for two reasons. First, there was a need to increase the audience and reduce government efficiency in censored content (Moser (2018). Subsequently, social platforms such as Weibo provided an easy way of sharing information.

           Imperatively, Guodegang is a gifted crosstalk artist with a mastery of traditional art. Notably, he could redo older pieces by updating old content while adding a more modern one. Contrasting to the usual stagey and polite xiangsheng performance style, Guodegang adopted a “bad boy” image by adding earthy double-entendres and sarcastic references to his performance, which attracted fans’ performance and, more importantly to his online presence. His typical jokes included sex scandals, corruption, and social dysfunction, which appear on the local dailies. The focus on social evils that hooked the post-1980s Internet generation has arisen to become his millennial fans. Indeed, a wide number of people have become obsessed with this new trend. Therefore, through the internet and fan culture, Guodegang could popularize xiangsheng to a fan base all through the world over the internet.  

Gaps in Literature

           Although there is a resurgence of the Chinese crosstalk, there is a lack of supporting scholarly evidence. Most scholarly evidence focuses on the ancient form of Chinese crosstalk or its history, including its decline and recent resurgence. However, the evidence about the influence of pop culture and the modern Chinese crosstalk is anecdotal. There is no direct evidence showing how pop culture has impacted Guodegang’s crosstalk and its contribution to the increased popularization of local and international audiences. However, the broader literature on pop culture’s influence on different Chinese indigenous folk culture suggests the impact may extend to Chinese crosstalk. Besides, the massive online presence of xiangsheng, popularized by Guodegang, indicates fan culture’s influence.

Research Questions and Hypothesis

Research Questions

According to these gaps in the literature, the present study seeks to answer the following research questions.

1. What are the characteristics of the indigenous Chinese crosstalk?
2. What are the differences between the indigenous and the resurgent Chinese crosstalk?
3. How has pop culture influenced the modern-day Chinese crosstalk?
4. What are the prospects of Chinese crosstalk?

Hypothesis

Based on these research questions, the proposed study seeks to test the following hypothesis.

H1: The influence of pop culture on Chinese crosstalk performance is positively associated with its increased popularity. 

H2: Over-reliance on one performer (Guodegang) will undermine the popularity and prosperity of Chinese crosstalk.

Methodology

           The suggested study adopts the qualitative research design, which is appropriate since the proposed research aims to gather in-depth details about crosstalk history, present performance, and the influence of pop culture. Three types of qualitative research methodologies will be used in conducting the research. First, there will be an interviewing process, which involved Focus groups and ethnographic research methods. Secondly, an interviewing process will allow respondents to give as much information as possible. Open questions will be asked and answered from all respondents compared to coming up with in-depth concise findings. Undoubtedly, the Focus group method will bring in all respondents and have a group conversation. Like those questions used in an interview, similar questions will be asked, but answers will be reordered only after an agreement among all participants. Therefore, answers that cause major disagreement will also be recorded. The research will further apply the Ethnographic research method to understand the challenges facing cultures and crosstalk motivations. Besides, the research will use personal observation of the crosstalk culture before seeking deeper answers from the people. The proposed research further adopts a case study research strategy. The choice will be suitable since it focuses on one or two organizations associated with the crosstalk. Hence, a case study strategy allows the collection of both primary and secondary data to gain an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under study.

Conclusion

The targeted organization intended to perform a case study research is Deyunshe, a Chinese crosstalk community responsible for organizing performances, training upcoming artists, and popularizing mastery among local and international audiences. Thus, based on anecdotal and media reports, Deyunshe is assumed to have in-depth knowledge about crosstalk and pop culture’s influence on the present performance and commercialization. The selection of participants from Deyunshe to participate in interviews will be based on snowball sampling, where participants will guide the selection of individuals assumed to be knowledgeable about crosstalk. Therefore, data analysis will be thematic, involving identifying major themes from interview responses to participants’ perceptions of crosstalk and pop culture’s influence on performance and popularity.  

 References

Ai-dong, S. H. I. (2007). GUO De-gang and the truth and goodness in his traditional so-called Chinese crosstalk. Journal of Tsinghua University, 2. https://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-QHDZ200702004.htm

Artistic Chinese Creation. (2020). Chinese folk art. Artistic Chinese Creation. https://www.artisticchinesecreations.com/folkart.html

Cai, S. (2016). A culture hero: xiangsheng (crosstalk) performer Guo Degang. Asian Theatre Journal, 33(1), 82-103. https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2016.0000

Cai, S. (2017). Guo Degang. Asian Ethnology, 76(2), 343-365. https://doi.org/10.2307/90017667

Huang, Y. (2018). Between postmodernism and Chinese folk art: An analysis of the Yelang Valley. Thesis, Stockholms University.

Lawson, F. R. S. (2020). Hidden musicality in Chinese Xiangsheng: a response to the call for interdisciplinary research in studying speech and song. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 7(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0528-y

Lawson, F. R. S., Sims, J. D., & Lawson, J. S. (2020). When audiences become performers and speech becomes music: new tools to analyze speech, song, and participation in Chinese crosstalk. Music & Science, 3, 2059204320937986. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204320937986

Moser, D. (2018). Keeping the Ci in Fengci: A Brief History of the Chinese Verbal Art of Xiangsheng. In Not Just a Laughing Matter (pp. 77-95). Springer, Singapore.

Tour, B. (2020). Chinese crosstalk. Tourbeijing.com. https://www.tour-beijing.com/china_travel_guide/culture/arts/chinese_crosstalk/#.X12947FR1dg

Wang, J. (2020). Five traditional Chinese art forms you need to know. Yoyo Chinese. https://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Learn-Chinese-Traditional-Art-Music-Peking-Opera-Calligraphy