In defense of public 'vulgarity'

I scorned Shanghai dialect comedy, or huajixi, in my college days, considering it low taste and "vulgar". I took a modern drama class and went to every play in town, from Shakespeare's Hamlet to Eugene O'Neil's Desire under the Elms.

But the same dramas, played in a small theater and attended by mostly college students, could not last for 10 days, while a "vulgar" Shanghai dialect farce, staged in a much bigger hall, would attract tens of thousands of people and go on for three months non-stop.

Nevertheless, I had held my contempt for huajixi for many years until my friend took me to the Tian Han Theater in Changsha, Hunan province, two months ago. There, an amateur type of Moulin Rouge or Las Vegas show was being staged 365 days a year with dancers from home and abroad.