A song-and-dance combination（er ren zhuan）
8 min readAcrobatics play a major role in modern er ren zhuan performances.
Vaudeville in the US can be described in many ways.The most romantic recollections of its incarnation is of a stage show with comedians，acrobats，dancing girls and other low-brow entertainment often put on in bath houses or speakeasies or an era long gone.The draw was that all the dirty jokes mixed with illegal booze topped off with scantily clad dancers could all be had for a cheap admission price.Many of Hollywood’s first movie stars like Buster Keaton and Gypsy Rose Lee started off in Vaudeville clubs and there is a special place in our culture’s heart for this type of naughty entertainment.
While there was no illegal liquor or unseemly atmosphere，the humor and the pacing was right out of a vaudeville-era bath house.So much so that I half expected to see aventriloquist act，one of the standards of American Vaudeville shows.Unfortunately one never showed up but the evening did start off with a Shaolin-inspired acrobat who tested his strength by breaking pieces of metal over his head，rolling around in broken glass topping off the act with a fire eating performance only to reveal time after time not a mark or scorch was to be found on his body，all to the delight of the crowd.If he would have started to rip phone books in half I would have squealed in laughter and joy.
After So-and-so the Magnificent，I call him that because they were always called that in the US，a few more performers came and went.A girl skipped onto stage and belted out a few local pop hits before handing it over to a young guy to do the same.The dancing girls came out once more，this time with a costume change and a Canto-pop track to dance to.
Now it was time for the official er ren zhuan portion of the evening.A thin good looking young guy came out on stage followed closely by a sweet looking but chubby female companion.From the very beginning the two were going back and forth verbally playing with each other, ribbing reach other, making fun of each other all to the crowd’s delight. It was really funny and was not unlike the concept of the straight man and the clown made famous by George Burns and Gracie Allen from early American television. The smarter dapper young man makes fun of the seemingly slow, yet lovable girl.
After a few songs to round out their act the two ended their set and the crowd wastreated to another provocative dance number. Taking the stage after the dancers was something I had never seen in China before, especially since I had been told that it just did not exist in China,a stand-up comic. Dressed in a garish costume with a few wacky props, the stand-up comic went through the same type of set seen on American television comedy specials. He worked the crowd, interacting with them, did impressions, and joked about all of the topical subjects of the day. Where it veered off into new territory was when he started to chug bottle after bottle of beer much to the crowd’s enjoyment and pushing. Apparently this is part of the local style. As a comic your prowess as a wordsmith is tested between you sucking down 700ml bottles of weak alcohol.I was amazed.I was offended.I loved it.
After he sauntered off stage to a big round of applause the MC returned flanked by two large carnival props. On each side of him was a large box the size of an upturned dining table divided into small pigeon holes covered with red tissue paper with a number written across each box. Were we at a county fair in the middle of Kansas, you would spend a quarter to punch through the paper and pull out your prize hoping it was a winning ticket for some new piece of farm equipment but ended up always being a handful of corn. Here, fortunately there was no corn. There were runners working the room accepting a few yuan per selection and returning the prize hidden inside to the lucky or less than lucky patron depending on thecontents inside the box.I think the top prize was something like an MP3 player but it did not really matter as it was just a cheap thrill that everyone enjoyed capping off the night’s entertainment.
The traditional handkerchief twirling is updated for modern audiences.
My traveling partners were surprised that I liked it as they told it me it was very local and not many people outside of the city, especially someone from the US could understandit. But how can you go wrong with pretty girls, beer chugging and fire eating?I mentioned that I would like to see this again and it was not long before I was sitting near the front of the stage again, this time in Chaoyang, to bear witness to a very high-end yet delightfully low-brow er ren zhuan performance.
This time we were in a proper theater but that merely gave the performers more room to let it all hang out. The MC started the show with several acrobatic displays-cartwheeling from higher and higher stacked tables to the stage below. He joked and sang with the house band while he warmed up the crowd. Then it was time for his partner in er ren zhuan to join him on stage. Out bounced a chubby girl in a flouncy outfit already nagging away at him. This common theme is different from what I normally saw on Chinese television. There the girl is still lovely and lithe while the guy is a bit dumpy playing second fiddle to her. Here in Chaoyang it seems more to have a more modern twist, or maybe local er ren zhuan has turned the tables a bit.
The two performers go into their act really letting each other have it to the point of getting physical. The acrobatics which included one or the other spinning the other around or lifting the other up always seems to end with both being tossed around the stage and conveniently dropped to the ground in a very comical way. The physicality is much more like a brother and sister playfully pushing each other around then a married couple. Finally after they settle down they go into the traditional twirling and spinning of handkerchiefs balanced with more acrobatics,a crowd pleasing act of comedic timing and skill.
Comedy is the focus of this particular stage troupe, so no sexy dancing girls this time around, but the comedy is biting and rapid fire. Next a solo performer takes the stage, dressed again in a garish outfit with a wacky haircut wielding a three foot by three foot plastic meat cleaver around on stage. This stand up comedian is actually pretty good and launches right into some off-color humor which sets the crowd off laughing. It must be dead on because my translator sitting next to me is laughing so hard she is crying. It is so good that I understand most of the punch lines and laugh out loud along with her.
The stand-up’s tone quickly changes as a young woman obviously on a date with her boyfriend answers her phone right in the middle of the show and starts to loudly babble away. Without missing a beat the stand-up is on her, walking off stage and coming into the crowd to poke fun at her just long enough to get the crowd on his side so that she gets up to leave to theater. When she returns he is waiting for her by the door asking if the phone call was good news and if everything was okay at home which gets the crowd roaring in laughter again. Any stand-up in the US would be proud to call him one of their own.
Although a hard act to follow, another er ren zhuan act takes the stage. Er means two and ren means person in Chinese so any duo can qualify and the two that come up on stage are a hilarious sight. The guy is your typical young hip Chinese dude. The girl has done her best to look like that cousin no one really wants to hang out with at family reunions. You know the one with the face”only a mother could love.”She has contorted herself to resemble a turtle, slicked back her hair and made her face up with lipstick that covers far more than her lips and drawn on eyebrows that ascend all the way up her forehead. The sight of her sets the crowd off laughing and she retorts with comical yelling and kicking in the crowd’s direction.
Test if agility and pain are common in modern er ren zhuan.
The two go back and forth with a bit that centers on this poor girl who no one wants to date trying desperately to get one from either the boy or some unlucky friend of his.A real ugly duckling story until she starts to talk and the screeches and howls that come out of her mouth only make you want to leave her on the side of the road. She picks on and pushes on the poor guy and you can do nothing but laugh out loud,a great act.
The rest of the evening is filled with more typical song and dance acts. In the tradition of Peking and other forms of Chinese opera a male performer ascends the stage in full female costume including make-up and hair belting out classic love songs of the past updated to more modern times.A strongman show follows with the performer bending and tearing apart metal pans and lengths of rebar.
The final act seems again to be the local specialty-drinking copious amounts of beer while trying to do impressions and maintain a vocal agility through the fog of booze. The performer does a very fine job of singing in the style of everyone’s favorite singers of past and present as their picture shines on the LED screen behind him. When the bottles come rolling out is when our performer has to go through the various rhythmic styles of banterpopular all over China fully sloshed. These heavy staccato spoken-word orations are highly commended when done sober, but when sandwiched between bottles of local beer you have to give the guy a standing ovation.
With the final curtain call and the entire cast bowing on stage I can only join the crowd and cheer them on, they put on a great show. Of all the extra-curricular activities available to supplement a hot springs trip, this is a must-see and worth finding throughout the smaller cities in Liaoning.
When you reach a certain financial point in life, the high point to be specific, the food gets better, looks betters, and is presented better.
