According to the director of Cultural Park, every Saturday 3-4 pm., Mr. Yan would come here to hold the performance.
Yan Zhitu entertains the public by his traditional story-telling at the Culture Park in Guangzhou.
One folding fan and one story-teller's gavel bring out all stunning stories about love and errantry over thousands of years. Story-telling, a kind of traditional folk art, is called "Shuoshu" in the north of China while is called "Jianggu" in the south. Around 3 o'clock on Dec. the 19th, Yan Zhitu, the last story-teller of Guangzhou, had shared his splendid stories with nearly one hundred fans under an old indialaurel fig tree of Xieyu Cliff, Cultural Park. The performance had lasted for an hour and marked the one-man talking show of the longest history and the biggest scale in Guangzhou another fresh start after 10 years of silence.
Children are big fans of story-telling
It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon: a time that people seldom appeared in Cultural Park on weekdays. But here was an exception. There were nearly a hundred people crowding around under the indialaurel fig tree of Xieyu Cliff to enjoy the vivid stories told by Yan Zhitu. The simple oblong table covered by a piece of red cloth created a grand world of story-telling. There came Yan Zhitu, who dressed in a blue long gown. Yan, the 62-year-old Cantonese was said to be the last folk story-teller of Guangzhou. With a folding fan and a cup of tea, he performed his one-man talking show "Legend of Dasanyan" and the fairy tale "Battle of Magic between Taishang Laojun and Buddha" in his Yan style for totally one hour. In some tense parts of the story, he even stood up and acted with exaggerated gestures and expressions to make the stories more attractive.
Yan's audiences were mainly senior citizens about fifty or sixty years old. Many of them were Yan's faithful fans when he began to pick up his podium at Shi'ergong, an entertainment facility on Jiangnan Street decades ago. They said the news that Yan would continue his career in Cultural Park pleasantly surprised them. A granny even caught the precious chance to ask for Yan's signature after the performance.
Some of the young audiences coming with their grandparents or parents were just 7 or 8 years old. These little fans all seemed to be very interested in the stories. An elder fan said, during the past few years that story-telling had faded away, he had to turn to the radio or TV program to keep on his addiction everyday. But being hard to experience the expressions and moves that showed by the folk artist had disappointed him. As the performance restarted, the old man said he Learning Tanglang Quan (a kind of Chinese martial art) to embellish his story Yan said, according to some senior story-tellers, both Canton's Jianggu and north China's Shuoshu were coming down from Liu Jingting, a famous story-teller of the Ming and Qing dynasty. At that time, the folk artist was a staff of Zuo Yuliang, a great general of Ming dynasty. Liu brought the art of Shuoshu to south part of the country during their fighting back to the Qing army. Then it flowered in this great land and was added more local's flavor. As now it is called Jianggu in Canton. In the early days of the establishment of PRC, there were many podiums set up by story-tellers in Guangzhou. Cultural Park had got the largest and oldest one. It was a coincidence that Yan himself first knew about Jianggu in this park, and then the fate brought them together for the rest of his life.
They say, one minute on stage takes ten years of practice. In some traditional stories, for example "Water Margin" and "Romance of The Three Kingdom", action takes an important part. Story-teller who knows nothing about martial art can not give his audiences a good performance. But if you do, even a very tiny gesture that performed well could arrest them at once. In order to embellish his story, Yan began learning Tanglang Quan (a kind of Chinese martial art) from a renowned teacher Guo Zishuo when he was 16. Now his kung fu has reached Level 6.
Yan also referred that, the folk art enjoyed a full blossom in the 1960s. Podium was set up in nearly every park of the city. But as TV set gained ground in the family over Guangzhou in the 1980s, this talking show became less popular among the citizens, especially the young generation. The podium disappeared and Jianggu faded from the city's memory. In the year 1996, the greatest story-telling performance in Cultural Park was canceled. Another two of the veteran local story-tellers Guan Xinwen and Liang Shuhong quit the stage in the same year. Worse, all his 10 apprentices left him in the late 1980s. Then he became the only folk artist in this field.
Yan remarked that unlike the talking show in some radio programs, audiences' participation was an essential element in a traditional one, for a real story-teller couldn't take the book with him and follow whatever the book said. They should depend on their own knowledge and experience. Every live show hadn't got any chance to re-record and start over again. For these reasons, Yan chose not to continue his performance on the radio program after the last show was canceled in Shi'ergong in 2001.
A wish: the traditional folk art can be carried on
As the last story-teller of Guangzhou, Yan dearly hoped that this traditional folk art can be carried on by the young generation. That many people flocked to give him supports made him so moved. "I will continue my story-telling career as long as there is audience," he said, though he had some bad experience in the past that his all ten apprentices left within a year. Now we all have the chance to appreciate this time-honored folk art, for 9:30-11:30 am. every Sunday morning, Yan is specially invited in the People's Park and Cultural Park to teach us his skills of story-telling. He happily told that 4 of his apprentices showed great interest of the performance.
Tan Guangwen, director of the Cultural Park said, story-telling performance in this park is the largest and has the longest history. Recent years, many citizens wish to hold some public cultural activities in the park. Restarting the talking show becomes a hit. With the opening of Yangcheng chrysanthemum exhibition in Cultural Park, the show flourished again at fans' desire. Tan believed that the time-horned traditional folk art would never get lonely in Guangzhou. At 3 pm. every Saturday afternoon, Mr. Yan Zhitu will be on his stage in Xieyu Cliff of Cultural Park, sharing his for-free performance to every fan.
(By Carrot Chan)
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