At the invitation of the Art Division of Ministry of Culture Suzhou Ballad-singing (known in Chinese as "Suzhou Pingtan") Art Troupe came again to stage in Beijing's Zhongshan Music Hall from Nov. 22 to 24 with some excerpts sung and told there.
This may be deemed as a sequel to that staged by the troupe in 1963, which once roused a great excitement in Beijing. According to the schedule, another performance of a medium-length storytelling (known as "Tanci" to the accompaniment of a three-stringed fiddle, known as "Sanxian") will be on show for Beijing people on the evening of the 24th of November.
This is the second time for Suzhou Pingtan to make its appearance in front of Beijing people. Surely it will make those ballad-singing fanciers to muse face-to-face on the sentiments the performers offer them in Gusu local twang and lull in the melodious rhythm of a lute.
Among those artists invited, there are four actors and actresses known as the first-rate in China, such as Xing Yanzhi, Xing Yanchun, Jin Lisheng and Zhao Huilan and other young performers renowned far and near across the Straits are Zheng Xiaoyun, Yuan Xiaoliang, Wang Jin etc.
What have been brought onto the stage by the artists are some programs selected from the awarded ones at the contest of the Sixth China Art Festival. They include medium-length Tanci entitled Big-Feet Queen, Yang Naiwu, Wu Song, and some long Excerpts of suchlike asKangxi, Huangtaiji, and To Date, a short excerpt of contemporary times as well as Tanci prelude Beautiful Landscape of Gusu etc.
The Suzhou Pingtan was originated from storytelling. Whatever it is, important as a story of wars or insignificant as a grandma's tale, the storyteller can always put them in the telling in a vivid and lifelike way. Three to five minutes singing is just a prelude of an evening party for drawing the attention of the audience.
Suzhou Pingtan is very popular in the Yangtze River Delta of Suzhou, Zhejiang and Shanghai. To appreciate a storytelling in some snack bars, costing only three to five yuan for a round of ballad-singing has now become part of the daily life of the people living in the area.
(People’s Daily 11/23/2000)
