A pot of tea, a few snacks and a bowl of laughs
The art of crosstalk has gone through crises in its 100 years of existence, but thanks to the persistence of many it is doing more than just surviving.
Guo Degang, who started studying xiangsheng when he was 7 and left his hometown of Tianjin to open his first club in Beijing in 1995, is credited with reviving crosstalk by giving sold-out shows, enjoyed by young and old alike. He gained movie-star-like fame, and his students, who are members of his xiangsheng performance group called Deyunshe, also drew a lot of attention.
His eldest son, Guo Qilin, also a xiangsheng performer, has expanded his career into reality shows, TV dramas and movies, and is a constant object of attention among young fans and paparazzi. Besides Guo, Miao Fu and Wang Sheng, two xiangsheng performers from Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, also gained a fan base in the country with their Shaanxi dialect.
