Xiangsheng, literally face and voice and also known in English as crosstalk or comic dialog, is a traditional performing art in Chinese comedy and one of the most popular elements of Chinese culture. It is usually performed as a dialog between two performers, more rarely as a solo monologue or as a group act, delivered in a rapid, bantering style rich in puns and allusions and typically spoken in the Tianjin dialect or in strongly accented northern Mandarin; performances sometimes include singing, Chinese rapping and musical instruments.
Facts
Place of OriginChina (Beijing-Tianjin area) 1 Notable Example Defining Traitcomic dialog performance built on speaking, imitating, teasing and singing, with teasing central to the form 1 Defining Trait In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Sources
1. Xiangsheng, Wikipedia
History section
Xiangsheng is generally thought to have originated in the late Qing Dynasty, particularly during the rules of the Xianfeng Emperor and the Tongzhi Emperor in the mid-1800s.
Notable performers section
Hou later became widely regarded as a master of Xiangsheng.
Format section
tease is the soul of Xiangsheng
Lead paragraph, defining sentence
Xiangsheng (traditional Chinese: 相聲; simplified Chinese: 相声; pinyin: Xiàngsheng; lit. 'face and voice'), also known as crosstalk or comic dialog, is a traditional performing art in Chinese comedy, and one of the most popular elements in Chinese culture.
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