Gift of the cross talk gab

Xiangsheng performances usually involve two performers clad in traditional long robes, standing behind a wooden table and engaging in witty banter, though there are also solos, trios or groups. The chief topic of their humorous conversations is familiar issues, including troubled family relationships, and the aim is not only to entertain but also to educate. The xiangsheng performer's larder is deep, holding allusions, innuendo, puns, songs, tongue twisters, and rich helpings of fantasy.

Beijing and Tianjin have been the two most important centers for xiangsheng, the capital giving birth to such great exponents as Hou Baolin (1917-93), and Tianjin being home to masters like Ma Sanli. Because of the proximity of the two cities, performers have frequently compared and exchanged techniques and styles, as well as having a common audience base.

As for Ma Zhiming, despite his love for xiangsheng, his dreams turned to another performing art, Peking Opera, and he enrolled to study it in Tianjin when he was 12 years old, in 1957.

That decision to turn away from xiangsheng was made all the easier in that his father, who had seven other children, did not want to train any of his children to become a xiangsheng performer, because its performers were almost always from poor backgrounds, and he wanted something better for his progeny.