30 Sep 2010 |
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![]() What is relevant is that Chinese audiences really get into the show. They are clapping and yelling out during performances. It is a really interactive experience (albeit in a terribly lame kind of way). So, what’s the deal? For those that you have never seen a xiangsheng performance, it can be thought of as a quick witted Abbot-and-Costello-esque standup routine that generally has your straight man and a naive dimwitted fool struggling with some sort procedural issue or getting taken advantage of. When you read that last sentence again (go ahead…take your time), doesn’t it sound like EVERY FUCKING DAY IN CHINA!? That’s exactly it. That’s why people like it so much. As the great poet Homer once said: It’s funny because it’s true. It’s art imitating life. People are laughing at the bittersweet irony which is their miserable existence. Wherever you go, on any given day, at any random time, you are probably that naive dimwitted fool struggling to figure out why you have to pre-pay your monthly electricity so that it cuts out on you in the middle of the night and the lady on the other end of the phone is the straight man telling you that you better conserve the last Joules of energy that you have since their office is closed for the next two days. You end up standing there looking like an idiot on life’s xiangsheng stage trying to figure how any of this sound and fury makes any sense. There’s nothing funny about xiangsheng. Instead, xiangsheng should be thought of as a very literal view into life in China. Next time you turn on the television and you see two men doing their cross-talk, shed a tear for the audience and the honest tragedy that is being retold to them. |
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