For over 60 years, Shan Tianfang (born as Shan Chuanzhong, then created stage name) performed and inspired youth to learn and apprentice with him the art of pingshu 评书 (píngshū), a Song dynasty–era storytelling tradition in which artists tell classical stories based on ancient Chinese history while wearing a gown and behind a table, with a folded fan and a gavel. He started the art as an 18-year-old and gained a 1-year apprenticeship from a pingshu master.
Shan Tianfang originally wanted to become a doctor though turned to the arts regretfully. However, it did not take long for him to love the arts much like his mother, a famous stage actress, and his father, a musician of the sanxian, a three-stringed Chinese lute.
During the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, his touring of the Tea House Circuit was put on hold. As pingshu was considered a feudal art, he was taken to “reformation training” for two years. The link to imperial China was one that Mao Zedong, the founder of the Cultural Revolution, wished to stop.
Shan Tianfang returned to the art and shared stories on the radio for 12,000+ episodes and was invited to prestigious events and galas in the 1980s. He did intense memorization combined with historical and literary research. He aimed to take out the superstitious side of history in the original works and took much time to refresh and bring a new perspective to the selections.
He eventually founded Shan Tianfang Culture and Media Academy in Beijing in 1995. He wished for the pingshu art to survive beyond him. While Shan Tianfang performed heroic stories deemed as classics, some pingshu artists today use modern works on stage. The fan is used to be key parts of the characters in the stories while the pounding of the gavel was for moments of dramatic moments.
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You can see more details on Shan Tianfang with the Story Artists Memorial.
The first video is an ode to him while the second video actually provides a story with English open captioning.
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I appreciate Shan Tianfang for wishing for others to apprentice with the pingshu art form. He saw the need of a establishing a school and pursued an appreciation beyond his solo accomplishments. I would love to hear him in-person after this time on earth.
Shan Tianfang still has a story. You have a story. We all have stories.