Chinese xiangsheng artist Zhang Yunlei Photo: Li Hao/GT

Something you wouldn't ever expect to see occurred on the evening of October 21, 2018. More than 2,700 people, mostly young women, from the audience sang the traditional Chinese Ping Opera together with the performers on stage. The Beijing Exhibition Theater was lit up in an ocean of green glow sticks that surrounded Zhang Yunlei, a 27-year-old crosstalk artist. 

"This has never happened  before in the past, has it? After the song, I said to the audience, 'Who said nobody listens to traditional stuff anymore?'" Zhang told the Global Times in a recent interview.

Xiangsheng, or crosstalk, which has been generally considered to have taken form in the mid-1800s as a street performance, is a traditional Chinese comedic performing art usually in the form of a duo dialogue full of puns and allusions, and sometimes with singing, rapping and musical accompaniment. As an apprentice of China's most famous crosstalk artist Guo Degang, Zhang has been learning the art since age nine. 

The Chinese people across the country appreciate xiangsheng especially during this time of the year. You can't miss the variety of all the  xiangsheng shows if you turn on the television to see any Spring Festival or the Lantern Festival gala.

Even the foreign visitors to China, especially northern China, such as Beijing and Tianjin, are no strangers to this form of art. However, most would hear it played by taxi drivers over the radio and may sound like old men's low, often hoarse voices, instead of from a fan sing-along. 

But Zhang is not your typical crosstalk comedian you'd find at a teahouse. In order to make the audience laugh, he does the same as his colleagues do. He tells jokes, banters, makes imitations and sings Ping Opera. But Zhang's handsome looks and elegant demeanor set him apart from the majority of xiangsheng comedians.  

And his fans are not your traditional xiangsheng enthusiasts. A typical profile of the audience of this art form would be an older or middle-aged man, speaking the Beijing dialect, and the type who would enjoy a cup of hot tea over some melon seeds. Not screaming fangirls waving green glow sticks.  

"Suddenly, the audiences of crosstalk shows have become more progressive. Some laugh and some scream [words of love]," Zhang said. "I myself don't know how this has happened." 

Fans of Zhang Yunlei wave green glow sticks at his performance. Photo: VCG

Screaming fangirls 

Zhang has a shy smile, and he became uneasy hearing comments that his fans idolize him. "To be honest, I am not confident. I don't think I am a so-called 'idol,'" he said. 

But his popularity proves otherwise. Tickets to his shows sell out within seconds online and he has more than 4.4 million followers on Sina Weibo. After the Global Times released a video of Zhang's interview on Sina Weibo on December 12, 2018, the post has received 4 million views and 25,000 reposts. 

Xue Ying, 28, who works in the internet industry, fell in love with Zhang while listening to him singing Beijing folk songs. "His eyes shine and his voice is clear and bright," Xue said. 

Due to her love for Zhang, Xue is learning more and more about crosstalk and all types of folk music, and now she listens to shows in the middle of the night.

"Compared with pop music, the beauty of traditional Chinese operas is that you never get tired of them. You could listen to the same segment all day and savor those words by heart," she said. "The words are so concise and so powerful that you would think about how great the Chinese culture really is. You would become so intrigued by the story that you will search for the whole script of the play online." 

The subculture of fandom is no news in this age. While the most common interests of today's fans are pop music, animation and sci-fi literature among others, modern fandom seems to be entering the traditional art forms too. 

With the growing popularity of Zhang and other young crosstalk artists alike, the change has also been under a fair amount of questioning and criticism. 

An opinion article from The Beijing News in December criticized crosstalk artists for wanting to be pop idols, saying that artistic creation might be destructed by laymen audiences. 

Making crosstalk hip again 

Xue attributes Zhang's popularity to his innovations, combining ballads and folk songs to make the traditional arts more acceptable.  

"Because of him, many young people change their playlist of pop songs to Peking Opera and Huangmei Opera (folk songs originating from Anhui Province). I am so proud of him," she said. 

Eighteen-year-old college student Ruo Xi has recently become a fan and she considers Zhang to be "very smart." 

"He knows [how to use] his talents and good looks, which the young people care very much about these days," she said. "He has already built a large fan base, which makes it easier for the young people to accept and learn the traditional arts that he wants to promote."

Zhang noted that in order to attract the younger generations, years of practice and innovation are both important for a crosstalk artist. For instance, he said that people would enjoy Beijing folk songs in their original form, but it'll be even better if an artist experiments with them by adding ballads and guitars.  

"While keeping updated with the times and continually innovating, our traditions should not be abandoned," Zhang said. 

Zhang has made recent appearances on The Chinese Youth, a show on the video streaming platform iQiyi, which attempts to promote guofeng (traditional Chinese styles usually in the forms of fashion, music, stage performance and anime) to young people. 

Zhang's understanding of the "Chinese style" is that it is beautiful the way it is. 

"Regardless of gender or age, people see beauty in all forms of quyi (traditional arts including singing and comedy)," he said. "You just sing it, and it presents beauty."