ABSTRACT
This book focuses on the unique art form known as Shuōchàng, performed by some of the oldest performers in the Tiānjīn community before they retired in the 1990s: Wáng Yùbaǒ, Lù Yĭqín (and her teacher, Luò Yùshēng), and Mă Sānlì. In the 1980s Zhāng Zhìkuān was still considered to be a relatively young performereven though he was the oldest performer of Fast Clappertales at the time-and he was a link between the performers who had established their careers before 1949 and the generation of performers trained after Liberation. All of the performers featured in this work were acknowledged by members of the Tiānjīn narrative arts community as some of the finest representatives of their artforms, although none of these artists had designated a successor to carry on their unique performance styles. Whereas younger artists had certainly been trained in the narrative arts prior to the 1980s, none had become completely accepted by these artists as inheritors of their traditions.
