Hsiang shang literally "appearance and sound", is a kind of Chinese folk minstrelsy (shuo chang). Presented in a format of comic dialogue, without special lighting, music, costumes, or stage properties, the entertainment artistry of hsiang sheng is a function of the players themselves—their appearances and renditions.
Hsiang sheng differs most basically from drama in the very verbal nature of its story presentation; drama, itself, is also a product of the player's personal demeanor. In other-words, generally, hsiang sheng uses words to deliver action, while drama employs actions to make its words meaningful.
Also, the hsiang sheng performer may take the parts of different characters —speaking the lines of role A, he is A; several lines later, he is B. A dramatic actor, generally, develops a specific character throughout a play.
According to hsiang sheng expert and veteran player Wei Lung-hao, hsiang sheng originated in the Tang Dynasty's (618-907 A.D.) Tsanchun Show. The authoritative book From the People, to the People (compiled by the Ho Lo Book Company) notes that the Tsanchun Show was also known as "Teasing Tsanchun" and "Needling Tsanchun" —in other words, a satirizing comic performance.
Historical legend reveals the form's origins during the Tsin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.): Tsanchun Chou Yan (Tsanchun was an official position) was a venal official of the time. Via their "comic" routines attacking him, actors created the Tsanchun Show:
Tsanchun was played by an actor in official headgear and a green robe. Another player-known as Tsang Hu —was presented in the shabby clothes of a poor man. As the routine evolved, Tsanchun finally became a laughingstock, outwitted by commonman Tsang Hu.
Still, according to hsiang sheng veteran Wei Lung-hao, while hsiang sheng is probably related to the Tsanchun Show, it was not totally derived from it. He notes, first of all, the existence of Tsanchun Show tragedy: Hsiang sheng is definitely comic. The Tsanchun Shows also incorporated female roles, whereas, so far as Wei knows, there were no women hsiang sheng players.
The written record of hsiang sheng itself traces back only to the reigns of Ching Dynasty Emperors Tung Chih and Kuang Hsu (1862-1908), and attests to the following:
A gifted scholar of that period, Chu Shao-wen, prepared himself for the civil examinations in Peking. But on discovering the corruption of the Ching government and the exam system, he abandoned his plans, immersing himself in stead in the fictional world of Peking Opera.
As a learned scholar, he had developed definite opinions on Peking Opera, and he now identified himself with reform attempts:
Most Peking Opera players hailed from poor families; very few had received any schooling at all. They were, therefore, instructed by masters, word by word and phrase by phrase, and thus memorized numerous stories. But over the passing years, erroneous interpretations had been increasingly relayed and lines distorted
Chu's active criticism was not only rejected, but he himself was finally forced out of opera and driven into the streets, where he became a street performer.
In Tienchiao (in south Peking), Chu would sweep the ground to create a semicircular pattern called a "drawing pot." Within the "pot" was his playing stage; on its boundaries, the audience area. He would use light-hued sand to write a couplet on the darker ground of the pot:
"Being filled with learning, I am not afraid of being poor. It is the riches of my studies that compels me to stand on this ground."
He gradually became known to audiences in Tienchiao as Chiung Pu Pa (not afraid of poverty) —the last three characters of his first couplet line. Possibly, it is at this time that the monologue form of hsiang sheng was created.
Chu took on four apprentices who sometimes "cross-talked" with their master, sometimes appeared on their own. And thus two-man hsiang sheng and multi-player hsiang sheng developed.
Hsiang sheng veterans Wei Lung-hao and Chen I-an, however, put its direct origins back to an earlier time-the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Ching Dynasty (1644-1911) period.
Many officials of the Ming Dynasty, unwilling to serve the conquering Manchu's new Ching Dynasty, retired from official life. But they often were nostalgically reunited at banquets where they would compose literary works slyly critical of the Manchus-they dared not directly show discontent. In the same vein, they had domestic servants perform, using irony and the cross-talk format to entertain the assembled guests. Gradually, such comic dialogue was imitated by professional entertainers.
In any case, today's hsiang sheng format was institutionalized in the late Ching Dynasty and went on to prosper in the early Republic, especially in north China, in the greater Peking area.
Four important entertainment skills are stressed by hsiang sheng performers: shuo, hsueh, tou, chang (to talk, to mimic, to tickle, to sing).
"Talking" skills are essential to relay a poem, a riddle, a joke, or a story.
"Mimicking" skills range from depictions of flying, running, floating on water, skipping through the grass, etc. to verbal legerdemain with dialects, genders, peddlers' hawking, and so forth.
"Tickling" is the special hsiang sheng comic style normally employed by a principal and a subordinate performer to entertain and amuse.
"Singing" includes proficiency in rendering various folk songs, tagu (a story in song to the accompaniment of drum beats), Peking opera offerings, and provincial folk opera styles.
"Talking" and "singing," then, are the general oral delivery techniques, while "mimicking" and "tickling" involve, also, physical input into the mocking performances of the hsiang sheng arena.
Hsiang sheng player-participants may number from one to three or four, and even ten or twenty have been known. But, two-man hsiang sheng is most usual.
The hsiang sheng monologue is considered the most difficult format of all because of the demands on a solitary man to set the atmosphere for an audience. Its affinities with another Chinese folk art-vocal mimicry-are evident. Such a monologue is, usually, just the warmup performance before the main part of the program.
In two-man hsiang sheng, the principal player is known as the tou ken te or shih huo te—main speaker; the secondary player is the pen ken te or liang huo te, which means a foiler, producer of jokes.
A joke in hsiang sheng is called a pao fu (cloth wrapper); the subordinate player is the one who unties the pao fu to amuse the audience. A connoisseur listens most carefully to the subordinate player, because he produces the humor.
In the early years of the Republic, hsiang sheng players in Peking wore the ordinary dress of the time—the long robe and a mandarin jacket. The stage properties were also simple—perhaps a folding fan, a handkerchief, and a ching tang mu (a wood block used almost like a gavel).
The fan is almost essential to a hsiang sheng performance. It may become a sword or gun, a book, or anything else. And a player uses it to point, to hit his companion's head (in universal comic reaction to being the butt of a joke) ... or just to fan, if he feels that sets a performance tone.
The subject matter of hsiang sheng is limitless-astronomy, geography, history, politics, legends, traditional operas, dialects, historical romances, folk stories, and so forth. Each tuan tzu (act or unit of hsiang sheng) presents a subject in a fixed framework, but lines may be added or altered according to the performing time and place.
Hsiang sheng may well be the supreme form of Chinese comedy, and as such, the most difficult to do well—Without much stage movement, property, or background, relying mostly on the players' deliveries, a pervading comic atmosphere is produced.
A hsiang sheng performer is clever, fluent, quick-witted.
The jokes must be drawn regularly to maintain a high level of audience attention, but a main climax must be reserved for the last lines so the audience may then have its biggest laugh, and the players, "step down from the stage with a bow."
The ways to both do-up and untie the "cloth wrapper" are critical to the artistry of hsiang sheng. The players seem so casually to "open the cloth" —expose the joke. But many experimental trials have actually preceded their presentations.
" San fan ssu tou" (three turns and a final; full-opening) is a regular technique for untying the cloth. The tou ken te uses three queries to lead the pen ken te into an answer formula; then with the fourth query, the latter is trapped:
A: Have you ever driven an automobile?
B: (Pompously) Yes, I have.
A: Ever driven on a freeway?
B: (Pompously) Yes, I have.
A: Ever overtaken other cars?
B: (Pompously) Yes, I have.
A: Ever run down people?
B: Yes, I...uh, uh, no, no....
Additionally to san fan ssu tou, according to Wei Lung-hao, there are twenty-one other techniques for untying the cloth wrapper.
Wei, now in his late 50s, recalled a childhood experience at a hsiang sheng performance in Peking's Tienchiao, where there was a special arena exclusively for hsiang sheng. The content of the performance was often vulgar, he said-a show for men only. Women and children were forbidden. Sometimes, unknowing women from other areas would join an audience and would be admonished by assistants to leave.
In theaters where various folk art performances were normally presented for mixed audiences, the content of hsiang sheng was purified, and its popularity grew.
Then with the invention of radio, Wei said, hsiang sheng was fully "disinfected" for broadcast, and the audience vastly increased. But, one of the two essences of hsiang sheng—the physical presentations—could not be transmitted on radio, and the scripts had to specifically compensate.
Hsiang sheng's physical proliferation depended mainly on apprenticeship—an elder performer reading a phrase and the younger memorizing it, then practicing by himself. In Peking's Chi Ming Tea Shop, recalled Wei, as master hsiang sheng players performed, apprentices would line up in the back of the room against the wall, learning from the real thing. After a routine was completed, an experienced player would take a practiced apprentice on stage as his pen ken te, then correct his errors after the performance.
In those early days in Peking, the training of many of the hsiang sheng players began in childhood, at about seven years.
Training courses included:
Kuan kou huo—tongue twisters, witticisms, and the names of the culinary specialties of the man han chuan hsi (Manchu-Han Royal Dynasty Feasts).
Tui tzu huo—gestures and singing, and the manipulation of such basic stage properties as the folding fan and handkerchief.
Chueh kou huo—provincial and district dialects.
Writer-scholar Tien Hang speaks highly of hsiang sheng apprentice training, describing it as "not mechanical training, but attaching great importance to alertness and reflection." He presented as an example the training given by Chang Lien-an to his then seven-year-old son, Chang Pao-kun (who later assumed the stage name Hsiao Mo-ku and became known as a particularly patriotic hsiang sheng artist). The father asked the son:
"If we conclude the performance and begin to collect the money, and a gentleman gives you several coins, how do you respond?"
Hsiao Mo-ku instantly made a bow. "Good. And, if a gentleman does not give us money but does not leave either, how would you react?"
Hsiao made another bow.
"Why, then, if he does not give us money would you still bow to him?"
"I would thank him for standing there to support our performance."
"You are right. But if a gentleman, seeing us beginning to collect money, turns and walks away, how would you react?"
Hsiao made still another bow.
"This gentleman does not pay anything, nor does he stand there to support us... so what's the meaning of this bow?"
"Because I hope he will leave more quickly, I thank him now so he can go away."
Chang Lien-an, following the exchange, declared happily: "This child has got the idea and is ready to perform on stage."
For a long time, hsiang sheng involved tzou chiang hu (wandering from place to place for performances). No tickets were sold. Voluntary audience contributions depended on the degree of individual appreciation ... and affluence. It was the duty of the apprentices, besides learning from the actual performances, to collect donations among the audience in the intervals between routines.
One of the special characteristics of hsiang sheng is that it is "talked" in the standard Peking dialect. One of its special legacies-via it's pervasive subject matter-is its preservation of a people's living experience-language fads, humor, anecdotes, music, opera, religious views, etc. Social phenomena were subjected to comic-irony, providing popular education as a side-benefit of intensive entertainment.
Wei Lung-hao, pointing this out, noted that a Sinology professor at the University of Wisconsin once told him that hsiang sheng tapes recorded by Wei and Wu Chao-nan were among his Chinese teaching materials for students in the United States.
With the rise of the mass entertainment media, this old folk art, like many others, has gradually declined. Many senior hsiang sheng performers who came from the mainland to Taiwan have now retired, leaving no apprentices to carryon.
Wei Lung-hao, though, carries the laughter of the past to the inheritors of the future, as a lecturer at the nation's colleges and universities. He has both collected and organized old materials, and he teaches several personal pupils.
Now the new stage show, The Night We Became Hsiang Sheng Comedians has had a tremendous popular success, and there is a rising mass media interest in the old routines; hopefully, we will be seeing a lot more of them.
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Twenty-Two models of Hsiang Sheng routines...
Wei Lung-hao chose the following twenty-two "untyings of the cloth wrapper" (unravelings of jokes) as model hsiang sheng routines:
—The "three turns and a final fourth full-opening" format is sometimes replaced by "two turns and a third opening":
Ah, Mr. Wei.
Hello Mr. Wu.
Well, do you still live in the same place?
Yes.
Never move away?
No.
Uh ... , And, where are you living now?
—First praising then censuring, but aimed at teasing-a format similar to "three turns and a fourth opening":
Hello there, Mr. Wei Lung-hao.
Hi, Hi.
You are a major actor, aren't you?
Sure, sure, I have been one for many years.
You are really an old-timer.
It's nothing.
(As if in awe) The elder!
You flatter me.
(Aside) Old twisted dough sticks!
(Chinese slang for "you swindler").
—Characteristic words—using the shortest and fewest phrases or words to draw out the nature of a character:
(Drunk, unclear enunciation) I...I am the mightiest! Who ... who dare ... offend me? ... who ....
(A brash young man) I dare!
You ... you dare? Now, hear this ... all of you heard it, ... this guy ... dare offend...offend me .... Come here, you ... Now, all of you, who dare off- ... offend the two of us?
—Violating regular rules—also, often used just to reinforce a comic effect:
Two rickshaw runners are fighting over a passenger. Runner-A lowers his fee to thirty cents; B to twenty cents; A, to a dime; and B finally says, "No charge." "No charge" has already violated accepted rules, but....
A: (In Chiangpei accent, interjecting obscenities) Hey ... pah, pah, pah... what a disgrace you are to all us Chiangpei people. Who ever heard of pulling a rickshaw free of charge? Mister, don't ride in his. He doesn't charge anything? Well, me neither. And, on top of that, I'll pay you fifty cents!
B: Oh ... pah, pah, pah ... you say I lose face for Chiangpei people? You are the one who loses face for us Chiangpei people. Who ever heard of pulling a rickshaw and paying the passenger? Mister, don't go in his rickshaw. He will pay you fifty cents? Me too. And, besides the fifty cents....
—The strange combination-using surprise coincidences:
An otherwise rich and handsome man, has no nose, but wants to many a pretty girl, while an otherwise beautiful and rich girl with a harelip desires an attractive husband. A matchmaker hopes to get them married without giving grounds for complaint afterwards.
In a face-to-face meeting, the game would certainly be over. So the matchmaker suggests they exchange photos instead of meeting.
The man's photo is set in a garden. He bends to smell roses, and the picture is snapped with a rose covering his nose.
The girl is pictured in a beautiful drawing room, answering the phone, "Hello—." Snap, and the harelip is hidden.
The matchmaker exchanges the photos, but includes explanations to ward off later accusations, telling the man's family that the girl is good, very good, only "her mouth is not so very good." The man's family presumes she is talkative, and that this will work out after the marriage.
The matchmaker tells the girl's family how handsome and promising the man is, but cautions that "there is nothing before his eyes." The girl's family assumes that means he is not very rich, but "never mind, we can help him out afterwards."
—Intentional sequence mystification-till a climax:
The character-a soldier-twice advises the audience that he sleeps naked.
One night the alarm is given that the camp is surrounded by bandits. The character springs up from sleep and runs off, wearing and carrying all he can-a long string of items is read-off, even boiled tea-eggs.
Then he runs back to the camp and every soldier laughs at him.
"I had to come back again." "Why come back?"
"I forgot to put on my trousers."
—Plays on words:
That day I visited your home, I knocked on your door, ko, ko, and the door was opened; I saw it was not a wai kuo jen (foreigner) ....
What? ....
No, no, not a wai jen (stranger).
Oh, who was it, then?
It was my dear friend, your wife.
Wh-a-a-t? ....
No, no, your wife—my ta sao (a polite reference to a friend's wife.)
By lengthening the pronunciation, A takes verbal advantage of B, indicating, in effect, "your wife is mine."
—Absurdly exaggerated and thoroughly ridiculous, but reasonable enough after explanation:
It's great to hear hsiang sheng.
Why?
Haven't you ever heard, "Hsiao i hsiao, shao i shao (Laughter makes you young)"?
But you are wrong; it's "Hsiao i hsiao, shih nien shao (A laugh makes you ten years younger)".
Ten years younger? No, you're wrong then.
Why?
How old are you?
Thirty-eight.
So, you are thirty-eight? Then at most you can listen to three hsiang sheng.
How can you say that?
At thirty-eight, if you hear hsiang sheng- ha, ha, ha-the laughter makes you twenty-eight. Two more times-ha, ha, ha-and you are eight. Now, no matter how funny the next joke is, you dare not laugh again....
—Self-contradiction:
What s your research subject?
Drama. I have done research into drama for more than fifty years....
Wait a minute, how many years? More than fifty years.
Oh, then, how old are you? Thirty-eight.
Thirty-eight? And done research for more than fifty years?
Yes, right.
Right?
Oh, perhaps a little less than that.
A little?
—Confusing statements:
(In Shantung accent) Today I have three main problems to discuss. The first one I have just mentioned; the second one: well, I don't have to be explicit, and you can certainly understand that; and the third, well, today I have not had enough time to consider it, so I have to temporarily leave it out.
—Quick-witted repartee:
Two men compete in a Chinese word game:
I say shan (hill).
I match with shui (water).
I have shan yang (a goat).
I match with shui niu (a buffalo).
Mine is, shan yang shang shan (a goat goes to the hills).
Oh, with shan at both ends! I have shui niu hsia shui (a buffalo goes into the water).
Shan yang shang shan shan peng shan yang chiao (A goat goes to the hills and the hills bump the goat's horns). It hurts!
Shui niu hsia shui shui man shui niu yao (A buffalo goes into the water and water covers the buffalo). It drowns!
—Confused logic-Sometimes, of course, a hsiang sheng routine fails. Good hsiang sheng should ordinarily untie a joke in every routine. When there is no joke, a confused logic format is intentional, and is settled by a rational explanation:
How old are you?
Who? Me? 42...
Oh, then, you are not older than I.
Oh? and, how old are you?
Me? 78...
What?
Oh, no, no, 69, oh, no, 43, no, no, 41, no, four years old, no, the first day, oh, noodles, ah, shoes.
Wha... wha..., what's all that?
Oh, you are confused now.
Now? I was on your first line.
My explanation will clear things up. Listen: My father is 78, my mother 69, I am 43, my wife 41, our son four years old, and the first day of this month was his birth day, and after eating noodles at home, I took him out and bought a pair of shoes.
—Reversed and "forked" language:
It is self-evident that the skies are high, the earth is deep, water flows, and men are capable. I, your master, am old in years, and my grays have all turned hair.
What?
No, no, my hair has all turned gray.
How is your job now?
Fine, even if you offered to make me a county exchange, I would not magistrate it.
Uh?
Oh, no ... even if you offered to make me a county magistrate, I would not exchange it.
—Using homophones:
A talks of the names of Peking Operas, and B assumes he is naming various dishes:
We did "Huang Ho Lou."
Huang wo tou (a kind of steamed bread)? Good, I haven't tasted it for many years.
And "San Chi Chou Yu" (Angering Chou Yu Three Times).
Oh, san tiao chi yu (three crucian carps), good.
And "Tai Shui Chan," (Commanding Sea Battles).
Ah, shui fan (rice gruel).
—Always optimistic:
We had three sons.
Thats-good.
What's good?
If each one gives you one hundred a month, then you will have three hundred every month.
Forget it. Two of them are dead.
That's good.
Good?
One filial son is equal to ten.
But, he is a thief.
Oh, good. Haven't you heard, "It's better to adopt a thief as your child than have a stupid son"? Now he will bring you whatever you want.
Now he does not steal; worse than that, he robs.
Rob? That's good, it's quicker than stealing.
But he was taken into custody yesterday.
Oh, good. Since you cannot teach him, let the police do it. Then he will be good.
Teach? He will be shot tomorrow.
Ah, good. Then your trouble is over forever!
—Misunderstanding and misinterpretation:
You hit a pedestrian with your motorbike?
Yeah, I ran into an old gentleman at the counter of a department store.
And ....
The saleswoman kept asking him what she could do for him.
—Random right and wrong use of terms:
Don't you understand? You're a real fan tung (rice bucket, slang for "fat-head"). You know fan tung?
Of course I know. If I didn't, I would really be a fan tung.
So, what's a fan tung?
Oh, come on! A fan tung is a rice bucket, a shui tung is a water bucket, and a ma tung (a stool) is a bucket for feeding ma (horses).
—Extended meaning:
A teacher says he can not ask his students to study all the time without rest, and he makes a list of holidays for them, inadvertently including the national lottery drawing days.
—Irrational argument:
Mister, take some bean curd home, please.
No, no, (angrily). Didn't we eat it yesterday. And you want us to eat it again?
(Another customer to the market owner) Don't be silly. Why give it away free to ungrateful customers. Better to throw the bean curd away to feed pigs.
Bean curd does not feed on pigs.
Huh?
Oh, oh, you say, "Bean curd does not feed on pigs"?
I, ..., Ah ... You said that!
I said that?
Everybody heard you say that.
So what will you do to me if I said that!
—Imitations, talking and singing:
Imitating a few lines of opera can be stylish or comic. And mimicked doggerels can be warmups for new routines: Two hsiang sheng players come on-stage with a bow, and the pen ken te recites a doggerel to prepare the audience for the next routine.
- Witticisms-a special characteristic of Peking dialect routines:
- "You are like the flies bumping against the window" (have brightness without a future).
- "I see you through wooden glasses" (cannot understand you).
- Jokes on oneself:
A ball is shot into the basket by B in the last few seconds of the basketball game; the final score is 52 to 50.
You won.
We lost.
You won by two points.
We lost by two points.
How come? Didn't you shoot the last ball with the score tied?
Right. But I was so nervous, I shot for the wrong basket.
- Mocking customs via comic mimicry:
In the Chinese society of old, the code of manners for upperclass women included such strictures as "don't shake the head in walking; don't reveal the teeth in laughing; don't lean on a wall while standing; don't expose the knees while sitting. "
Affluent Chinese women often wore long eardrops; the one in the left ear was called hsiu, in the right, chih, both also words for "shame." A girl walking in the street who turned to glance at a passing boy would feel the eardrops hit her cheek or neck— "a shame. "
A. How would she act if she met an acquaintance?
B: No differently. For instance, a girl's walking and an older neighbor lady calls her from in back (mimics the lady): Erh ku niang (the second-oldest girl of some family). (Mimics the girl): "Who is it?" (Lady): "Me, don't you recognize my voice? Turn around and take a look." (Girl): "Yes, auntie, I am turning (mimics the mincing steps of the girl); just a moment."
And, girls of old carried a handkerchief tucked under the arm, ready to hide their teeth in laughing:
A peddler, selling prepared meat fillings for dumplings, hawks in a lane, and a girl comes out to buy some. Her aunt, a neighbor, comes out too. Auntie likes the girl and teases her.
(Mimics aunt's voice): Yo, Erh ku niang - buying meat filling by yourself? (Lowers her voice): Be careful, your fiance's family will see you.
The girl, covers her mouth with a hand kerchief to laugh; (imitating the girl's gestures): "Auntie, you always tease me."