Yangzhou Storytelling

Also called Yangzhou pingci, Yangzhou storytelling is the art of narrating history and tales in the Yangzhou dialect without props. It took shape in the late Ming and early Qing, with masters such as Liu Jingting setting its standards, and flourished across Yangzhou and the Jianghuai region.

A single performer, with a table, a wooden gavel and a folding fan, unfolds long sagas through narration, gesture and dialect humour. Traditional repertoires such as the tales of Wu Song have passed down for generations, prizing the arts of telling, depicting, commenting and joking.

Yangzhou storytelling entered the first national ICH list in 2006. A flagship of Jianghuai quyi, it is valuable for the study of dialect, folklore and oral literature.