Audiences warm to online shows as venues remain closed
Gao Xiaopan, left, founder of the Hip-hop Crosstalk Club, performs xiangsheng in Beijing before the pandemic. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Imagine owning a small theater in downtown Beijing staging xiangsheng, or crosstalk, shows－the most popular comedy performance genre in China. The venue attracts audiences of about 200 every night during the week, and more on the weekends.
More than 100 performers are on the books, and you are making a profit thanks to loyal audiences and xiangsheng fans, who see the theater as a place for fun, relaxation and a chance to meet friends.
Xiangsheng performances rely on facial expressions and body language to communicate with audiences. It is hard to keep the attention of an audience watching in front of a screen
Yang Lin, a performer from Tianjin
Then the novel coronavirus pandemic arrives. Suddenly, your business－and many others like it－has to close to help contain the virus. Even if it could stay open, people self-quarantining at home and practicing social distancing are not going to the theater.
This situation confronted Gao Xiaopan, the owner of a small theater in Beijing and founder of the Hiphop Crosstalk Club in the capital. The xiangsheng performer, who has been practicing the art since he was 8, eventually decided to close the theater.
On April 19, Gao bid farewell to the venue, which he founded at the end of 2013. He shared a photo on his Sina Weibo account, which has more than 2 million followers, of himself sitting on the stage.
The theater is situated in Jiaodaokou－a populous hutong, or alleyway, area near the Gulou, or Drum Tower and Nanluoguxiang, both popular tourist attractions.
"I was depressed when all the shows were canceled due to the viral outbreak. However, I didn't expect the situation to worsen," Gao, 35, said.
The Drum Tower West Theatre in Beijing remains closed during the outbreak. (WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY)
He added that the last show his troupe staged was at the Minzu Theater in Beijing on Jan 18, which attracted an audience of more than 1,000. Performances were planned for after Lunar New Year's Eve, which fell on Jan 24.
Gao said he has asked himself several crucial questions in recent weeks, such as what will happen to his business and colleagues? Will they be able to pay their rent? Will the theater business survive the impact of the virus?
Born in Baoding, Hebei province, Gao enjoyed watching comedy movies as a child, and one of his favorite film stars is Hong Kong-born Stephen Chow.
His mother took him to a local arts training center, where Gao studied xiangsheng as a form of entertainment. However, she did not expect him to choose it as a career, as the prospects did not appear promising at the time.
Xiangsheng was first staged in Beijing in 1862, when performers began attracting audiences in the Tianqiao area of the capital, a place where street players gathered to perform a variety of shows, such as acrobatics, Peking Opera and pingshu, a traditional Chinese form of storytelling.
Performances of xiangsheng usually feature two performers clad in traditional long robes, standing behind a wooden table and engaging in witty banter, although there are solo productions and those involving three players or more.
Familiar issues, including troubled family relationships and social topics, usually form the main theme of the humorous conversations, the aim being not only to entertain but also to educate. A xiangsheng performer's reservoir of talent runs deep and includes allusions, innuendo, puns, songs, tongue-twisters and liberal doses of fantasy.
The Hiphop Crosstalk Club in the Jiaodaokou area of the capital is also closed. (WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY)
Classmates gave up
Young players study with a xiangsheng master for three to five years and perform with the teacher to gain experience in mastering onstage techniques and communicating with an audience. They then strike out on their own. The art form's basic skills include shuo (talking), xue (imitation), dou (teasing) and chang (singing).
"I enjoy making people laugh, and I learned fast," said Gao, who started studying xiangsheng at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 2003.
After graduating, 80 percent of his classmates gave up performing xiangsheng, but Gao persevered. To make a living, he did part-time work as a shopping guide, wedding host and house painter.
In 2004, he started to perform xiangsheng regularly at the Chaoyang Cultural Center in Beijing, where he gained a large fan base. With his original pieces, Gao combines the traditional wit with jokes inspired by daily life. His onstage improvisation appeals to young audiences.
In 2008, he founded the Hip-hop Crosstalk Club, along with a dozen young xiangsheng performers, including You Xianchao, Gao's longtime partner. Gao found fame and more fans through appearances in television shows, movies and reality productions.
He formed the idea of staging shows at his own theater after his troupe began performing regularly every week. In 2013, he secured a bank loan to launch his first theater in Jiaodaokou, which started to make a profit a year later. In 2017, Gao opened his second venue, a 300-seat theater in Wukesong, western Beijing.
"Although I have other work, such as acting in movies and appearing in reality shows, I really love performing xiangsheng at the two theaters and this has never changed," he said.
During the coronavirus pandemic, many of those working in the performing arts industry have turned to staging shows online, the Hip-hop Crosstalk Club being no exception.
On March 28, Gao and xiangsheng performers from the club held their first online show on Douyin, one of the country's most popular short-video platforms. The debut performance was watched by more than 1.2 million people, way beyond Gao's expectations.
"It was all new to me, as I had rarely watched shows streamed online before I started to do it myself," he said. "But when I realized that this was a way to connect with audiences, I decided to do it every day."
The exterior of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Along with his colleagues, Gao writes scripts for each day's online show. However, unlike theater, where audience reaction provides immediate feedback to his jokes, he adjusts the tempo for online shows and the way of telling stories. He also answers questions from audiences, bringing him closer to fans.
"It's not just me and my company facing a crisis as a result of the virus. Some of my friends, who run film and advertising companies, face the same dilemma－pay the rent or eat first?" Gao said. "The sudden changes to the business made me think about my company's future. If we can survive this, I'll be all the better for it."
He added that staging xiangsheng shows online can never match theater shows, a sentiment with which Yang Lin, a performer from Tianjin, agrees.
"Xiangsheng performances rely on facial expressions and body language to communicate with audiences. It is hard to keep the attention of an audience watching in front of a screen," said Yang, who heads a five-year-old xiangsheng troupe in Tianjin, and faces a similar situation to Gao.
Beijing and Tianjin are the two most important centers for xiangsheng. The capital is the hometown of renowned exponents such as Hou Baolin (1917-93), while masters like Ma Sanli (1914-2003) were born in Tianjin. Because of the cities' proximity, performers frequently compare and exchange styles and techniques, and have a common audience base.
Yang's troupe faces no pressure from rental payments, as he leads it in performances at teahouses in Tianjin.
"Obviously, we may gain a fan base with online performances, but I think that theaters are still the main venues to keep xiangsheng alive," he said.
Meanwhile, Li Yangduo, who owns the Drum Tower West Theatre, tucked away in hutongs near the Gulou area of Beijing and which stages contemporary plays, was planning to celebrate its sixth anniversary last month, but had to cancel the arrangements due to the outbreak.
On April 17, Li posted an open letter on the venue's social media platform, stating that it was facing a severe financial struggle, as all shows had been canceled and it had no income.
She then decided to save the theater by selling cherries online, an idea inspired by her friend Li Ge, a theatre producer from a small village in Yantai, Shandong province, which is known for growing and selling the fruit.
With the outbreak affecting the fruit trade, Li Ge uses social media platforms to sell cherries for her family.
Li Yangduo said: "Like many small theater owners, I'm pretty devastated by what's happening. We are all facing extremely difficult circumstances due to COVID-19. We literally don't have a penny of revenue coming through the door.
"The news about selling cherries caught my attention and I was drawn to the idea immediately. I am a big fan of (Russian playwright Anton) Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. When I saw the pictures of real cherry trees posted by Li Ge, I was touched." She added that she named a bookstore at the Drum Tower West Theatre the Cherry Orchard Bookstore.
"There's never been a situation like this. It's unclear when we will be able to stage shows again, but we will do whatever we can to keep the theater alive," Li Yangduo said.
The theatre's supporters warmed to the idea, and within three days, more than 1,500 kilograms of cherries were sold.
"It was beyond my hopes. We had never sold fruit before. We knew that people wanted to show their support for us and to return to watch plays at the theater, just as we do," Li Yangduo said. "For all of us, the theater is a land full of imagination and joy."
A Peking Opera singer livestreams at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. (PHOTO / CHINA NEWS SERVICE)
Recruitment plan
The Drum Tower West Theatre has produced 12 plays in the past six years, including The Pillowman, adapted from award-winning Irish playwright and director Martin McDonagh's eponymous story, and Thunderstorm, written by renowned Chinese playwright Cao Yu.
Last year, nearly 300 performances were staged at the theater, attracting total audiences of about 60,000. Plays produced by the venue also toured nationwide, with more than 60 performances drawing some 60,000 people.
To keep in touch with audiences, Li Yangduo has also launched online programs, including those in which theatergoers share their favorite scripts and read them together. She also plans to recruit actors for her theater, in the hope of preparing new works for when it reopens.
"We think we're doing something unprecedented. What we do now is for the future of the theater. The viral outbreak will end, and we just don't want to abandon our dream," Li Yangduo said.
The government has drawn up plans for small theaters and independent cultural companies to weather the pandemic, such as providing subsidies and allowances to performing arts venues as well as increasing loans to cultural enterprises.
Large venues, such as the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing and the Shanghai Grand Theatre, are also connecting with audiences during the outbreak.
According to a report on April 29 by the Beijing Association of Performing Arts, the average operating cost of larger venues in China is about 25 million yuan (US$3.53 million) a year. They depend on financial sources such as government support, ticket sales and donations.
On May 2, 100 days after it closed, the Shanghai Grand Theatre launched an online performance featuring the Jin Xing Dance Theatre, China's leading contemporary dance company, the Shanghai Ballet and the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.
Media platform The Paper quoted Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of the Shanghai Grand Theatre, as saying, "It's heartening to see the warm audience feedback at a time when the performing arts industry remains under enormous pressure as it struggles with the uncertainty of the coronavirus.
"There's still no clear idea of how long the closures will last, but the tradition of going to the theater will never die."
On May 8, the State Council announced that entertainment venues such as cinemas and theaters will be opened gradually, and online appointments will be needed for admission.
