Pingtan in Suzhou

四川 罗丽文

As a child growing up in Suzhou,East China's Jiangsu Province,Wu Jing loved to go to teahouses with her parents and grandparents to watchpingtanperformances.

Pingtanoriginated in Suzhou during the Song Dy⁃nasty. It usually involves just two performers—one male and one female, who play traditional musical instruments,sanxian(a three⁃stringed plucked instrument) andpipa(a four⁃stringed lute),while singing ballads and telling stories of ancient heroes, tragic lovers and other classic Chinese folk tales in the Suzhou dialect at teahouses or small theaters.

Unlike Peking Opera, another major art form with a history of more than 200 years that has high⁃pitched singing and martial arts,pingtanperformers usually sing in softer and more narrative voices. The art form has a stable following in the southern areas of the Yangtze River,such as Shanghai,Suzhou,Hangzhou and Nanjing.

“It's a lifestyle for people in my hometown to watchpingtanperformances. There are hundreds of venues in the city wherepingtanshows are staged daily.People enjoy it while sipping tea and eating snacks,”says Wu, who naturally fell in love withpingtanand later studied at apingtanschool in Suzhou.“When you visit Suzhou as a tourist, you have to watchpingtanperformances to make your trip complete.”

Classicpingtansongs, such asYue Yun, which tells the story of Yue Yun, the eldest son of Yue Fei, a military commander of the Southern Song Dynasty, and two songs about Cui Yingying, the protagonist ofRomance of the Western Chamber, a well⁃known Chinese drama written by playwright Wang Shifu during the Yuan Dynasty.

Besides old classics,newpingtanworks include modern takes on old stories and adap⁃tations based on social events or topics.