Dressed in a gray, traditional Chinese robe, and drumming up a click-clack beat of the Mandarin duck brass plates, or yuanyang ban, a young American speaks rapid Chinese to the delight of the crowd. The Chinese crowd is impressed by the foreigner's ability to talk in fluent Shandong dialect, but more amazed by what he is saying. The yarn he is spinning is hilarious.
Eric Shepherd is a Chinese lecturer at Ohio State University and has been amazing audiences both in China and the United States in recent years with his performance of Shandong kuaishu, a traditional Chinese story-telling art originated in east China's Shandong Province more than 200 years ago. And locals say Shepherd's Shandong dialect is so convincing, that if they closed their eyes, they would not know he was American.
Eric Shepherd learns from Wu Yanguo a special gesture called "burning the candle at both ends".
Shepherd says he has Wu Yanguo, the third-generation master storyteller of Gao (Yuanjun) School Shandong kuaishu, to thank. "My master told me that the ban (the rhythm-keeping instrument) is the 'rice bowl' of we folk art performers, so I keep them with me all the time," Shepherd says.
With skillful use of the flat, half-moon discs sandwiched between the fingers, Shepherd often begins his performance with a shumao, or story hat. It is kind of an introduction or appetizer that builds audience interest and allows the performer to warm up before the main course.
Shi Kun, a US educator who saw Shepherd's performance of Wu Song Kills the Tiger (Wu Song Da Hu) earlier this year, says the audience was hypnotized by the musical quality of Shepherd's storytelling and the flashing of the brass discs as he kept the rapid beat easily.
"By the final bow, the audience seemed to release a collective sigh as they came back to reality," Shi says.
"Although the story was told entirely in Chinese, Shepherd's vocal abilities separated the roles of the narrator, Wu Song, the innkeeper and the tiger, making it easy for the audience to separate the different speakers and understand the story.
"This was helped by varying tempos, dramatic facial expression and his body movements."
For more than a decade, Shepherd has immersed himself deeply into Chinese culture and spends at least six months each year in the Middle Kingdom.
His journey started in 1994 after he began learning Chinese as a political science major at Ohio State University to fulfill the foreign language requirement of the course.
"As I took more Chinese classes, I discovered that it came naturally to me and I really enjoyed making friends with Chinese," Shepherd recalls.
He traveled to China to learn more about Chinese culture after graduation in 1995 and took a job as an English language teacher at Yantai University in Shandong for a year.
From 1997 to 2004, in an effort to build closer ties with China, Shepherd worked for the Ohio university, taking groups of US students to China. The students studied the language and culture and also worked as interns in Chinese firms or government offices. The China experience helped Shepherd complete master's degree on Chinese culture. For his thesis, Shepherd researched Shandong culture and wrote about intricacies of banquets in Shandong .
At the banquets, he made friends with traditional folk art performers, including Shandong kuaishu artists, and soon became hooked. He went to see live performances, talked with the performers and read as much as he could about this comedy routine. He continued his PhD study on Chinese language in 2004 and decided to write his dissertation on Shandong kuaishu.
To do so, he sought out Master Wu Yanguo, 57, and officially became Wu's apprentice at Qingdao of Shandong in 2004.
The experience changed his life forever. "There is no typical day during my one-year apprenticeship, because every day was different and exciting as Master Wu included me in all of his performance activities," Shepherd says. "I traveled with him all over Shandong performing for students, workers, soldiers, officials and farmers."
On days when they did not perform, Wu taught Shepherd how to play the ban, tell each word of the story and demonstrated every movement and every possible facial expression.
Shepherd dedicated "every second" of his life to kuaishu during the apprenticeship, as he and Wu even discussed the folk art during dinners at Wu's house. When they ate out with Wu's co-workers, Shepherd was always asked to perform for them so he could get more practice and feedback.
While Shepherd was an apprentice, Wu had 30 to 40 students but tutored only two apprentices to allow Shepherd intensive training.
"Master Wu would not accept any tuition from me," he says. "He told me that this was the tradition in China as the master accepts the apprentice as one of his family members," says Shepherd whose parents were divorced when he was very young.
"I feel so indebted to him. He gave me a year of his life without asking for anything in return except for my dedication and hard work while learning."
All the hours of practice was worth it when Shepherd made a really successful performance before more than 30,000 audience and local television station video cameras in Jimo of Shandong two years ago.
He performed two stories and the crowd was clapping along to the beat. The audience laughed exactly when they were supposed to laugh and cheered when he finished.
"As I was leaving the stage, I could hear shouts for me to tell another story," he recalls. "When Master Wu, who was to perform next, passed me backstage, he grabbed my arm and said one word: 'Bang (terrific)!' I will never forget the look of pride on his face."
Master Wu, president of the Qingdao Folk Song and Dance Troupe, has reason to be proud, because Shepherd "speaks pure Shandong dialect and one cannot distinguish him from a Chinese performer with eyes closed".
"I feel so happy that the art of Shandong kuaishu has been successfully passed on, wide and far," Wu says.
The only negative was that the apprenticeship had to end in late 2005 for both master and apprentice.
"After I left, I felt like a part of me was missing," Shepherd says. "So, now, every day, I listen to recordings I made of Master Wu's classes and performances so that he is always with me."
In May, Shepherd finished his PhD dissertation, which is dedicated to Master Wu and entitled Building Performances: A Pedagogy of Culture Based on Chinese Storytelling Traditions.
When the new semester begins in September, Shepherd will become an assistant professor of Chinese language and culture at Iowa State University and of course, "the stories related to Shandong kuaishu and Master Wu will be told regularly".
"My experience in China was life-changing. Master Wu is the most amazing person I have ever met," he says. "He always brings joy to others and this was one of the most valuable lessons he taught me about life -- bringing joy to others is the best road to personal happiness."
(China Daily August 7, 2007)
