Current location:business >>
Popular Chinese crosstalk comedians bring laughter, cultural charisma to London
business3764People have gathered around
IntroductionGuo Degang is a popular Chinese traditional crosstalk comedian who has over 15 million followers on ...
Guo Degang is a popular Chinese traditional crosstalk comedian who has over 15 million followers on China's video-sharing platform Douyin.[Photo/Xinhua]
Thunderous laughter and applause almost blew off the roof of an auditorium in London's ExCeL Exhibition Centre on Saturday night, when a punchline by Guo Degang, a popular Chinese traditional crosstalk comedian, landed with an audience of thousands.
Along with Guo and his partner Yu Qian, a handful of comedians from the De Yun She Performance Group performed Xiangsheng, or crosstalk comedy, with both jokes about life anecdotes and traditional crosstalk episodes.
"Laughter is contagious and that is what makes the art form of crosstalk comedy powerful," said Guo, a leading character in both the performance group and the industry.
Guo and his group started their first overseas tour in Australia in 2011. Since then, they have performed in places including the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore. This was the group's second time performing in London.
"The outcome of our years of international tours has made me realize the enduring vitality of traditional art," he said, adding that such performances can help overseas Chinese overcome homesickness through "voices in their mother tongue" and introduce traditional Chinese culture to a broader audience.
"Ever since I started learning Chinese, I've been interested in Xiangsheng," Christian Elliott, an audience member who has been learning Chinese for more than five years, told Xinhua. He wanted to see how much of the show he could understand given that there is a difference "between knowing conversational Chinese and knowing 'full' Chinese."
Elliott added that such an experience can help him learn more about the Chinese culture, history and the way people from a different background think.
Saturday's show was also the first public appearance in London for a few younger-generation performers, among whom was Meng Hetang, who joined the group in 2008.
Meng said that young inheritors of time-honored art forms, like himself, need to not only adhere to and promote tradition, but also innovate to keep pace with modern times. He performed his recently-created episode during the show.
In recent years, crosstalk comedy is becoming increasingly popular in China, especially with young people. Guo alone currently has over 15 million followers on China's video-sharing platform Douyin, while other fellow performers have several million followers each.
With London being the first stop of its Europe tour this year, the group was expected to perform in cities including Glasgow, Paris, Milan and Madrid in the upcoming month.
Tags:
Reprint:Friends are welcome to share on the Internet, but please indicate the source of the article when reprinting it.“International Insights news portal”。http://lesotho.tokosaranateknik.com/html-73b199737.html
Related articles
Socialite Jasmine Hartin enjoys beach snuggle with electrician hunk
businessSocialite Jasmine Hartin has been seen enjoying a beach snuggle with her new mystery man.Ms Hartin w ...
【business】
Read moreReport urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse
businessA tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential ...
【business】
Read moreWithout cameras to go live, the Trump trial is proving the potency of live blogs as news tools
businessNEW YORK (AP) — They watched from the courtroom or via closed-circuit television in an overflow room ...
【business】
Read more
Popular articles
- Justin Timberlake set to bring his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Australia in 2025
- Jury: BNSF Railway contributed to 2 deaths in Montana town
- Biden will send Ukraine air defense weapons, artillery once Senate approves, Zelenskyy says
- INTERVIEW: ‘There's exposure across Wall Street’ — Radio Free Asia
- Election 2024: Biden and Trump bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates
- William Strickland, a longtime civil rights activist, scholar and friend of Malcom X, has died
Latest articles
Iran helicopter crash that killed President Raisi could reverberate across the Middle East
US report: ‘Ethnic cleansing’ of Rohingya took place last year — Radio Free Asia
Twins send struggling Varland to Triple
Lowry, Connor propel Jets to 7
Adams, Reyna, Turner, Ream are US concerns ahead of Copa America
Damian Lillard's 35
LINKS
- North Carolina University system considers policy change that could cut diversity staff
- North Carolina University system considers policy change that could cut diversity staff
- House panel says China subsidizes fentanyl production to fuel crisis in the United States
- How the US failed to stop a Cambodian monkey ‘smuggling conspiracy’ — Radio Free Asia
- 3 Pennsylvania construction workers killed doing overnight sealing on I
- Video: Escaped circus elephant stops traffic in Montana
- Supreme Court makes it easier to sue for job discrimination over forced transfers
- Garland defends Biden's mental fitness and says he has 'complete confidence' in him
- Supreme Court makes it easier to sue for job discrimination over forced transfers
- 'Callous' crook who pretended to be an 82