Cross-talk Pays the Rent
By admin on 2015-01-09

Graduates in Guizhou Province are making a living using the cross-talk skills they have developed in university societies, with their weekly performance proving a big hit.

Two recent graduates, Hong Fangzhou and Mu Wu, and two undergraduates, Ding Yang and Chen Dan, stage cross-talk shows in downtown Guiyang, capital of the province, every Saturday night.

The students used to meet through their drama club at the Guizhou University for Nationalities, and have now set up the Chunqian Cross-Talk Studio.

Hong Fangzhou, a Chinese language and literature graduate and initiator of the studio, found his partner Mu Wu, a journalism major, when they were both freshman members of the same drama club.

Hong began learning cross-talk by himself by listening to radio programs and tapes when he was in middle school. And with Mu being a fan of Peking Opera, the two found a common interest in Chinese folk arts.

"At first, we only aimed to perform cross-talk at our university," said Hong. "It wasn't un-til the next year, when Ding and Chen participated, that our performances began to draw more attention from the students and we got the idea to run a studio."

According to Hong, shows on the university's gala evenings were hugely popular and the four became well-known across the campus.

"We were invited to perform on 30 evenings a year by students from both our univer-sity and others. The fever for cross-talk among the college students made us believe there was a promising market," said Hong.