Crosstalk for the new era discussed in symposium

A symposium that gathers veteran crosstalk performers, scriptwriters, authors and literary critics to discuss how to create high-quality crosstalk scripts for the new era was held at the Beijing Crosstalk Weekend Club in Beijing's Dongcheng district on Sunday.

The club, as the first Chinese crosstalk club in the country back in 2003, was founded mainly to give senior crosstalk artists a place to entertain keen audiences, offer young crosstalk performers a stage to rehearse, and get crosstalk lovers closer to the traditional Chinese art form, according to Li Jindou, honorary chairman of the club.

Jiang Kun, a renowned crosstalk performer, pointed out at the event the importance of the literary nature of crosstalk works.

He said that many amateur performers without deep insight into the crosstalk culture have emerged into today's crosstalk scene.

"Although their punchlines enjoy popularity among young audiences, they found they've hit a bottleneck. At this point, I think it is literature that can help them make a breakthrough and improve the quality of their performances," said Jiang, adding that he hopes that authors could help young crosstalk performers to improve themselves in the literary world.

Song Fangjin, a scriptwriter, said that there are so many touching stories this year worth turning into art. China's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its poverty alleviation efforts could also serve as themes for crosstalk performances.