“Jumping the Dragon Gate”; Storytellers and the Creation of the Shanghai Identity  

Oleh:

McDaniel, Laura

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Modern China vol. 27 no. 4 (Oct. 2001), page 484-507.
Topik: Storytellers and the Creation of the Shanghai Identity
Fulltext: 484MC274.pdf (89.54KB)

Isi artikel

In 1875, a local Shanghai pictoral newspaper ran an article about the prevalence of storytelling beggars in the Chinese part of the city. Its author described these beggars as follows: “These pitiful creatures are usually driven to this lowly profession by disability, but this is not their only problem. They are hungry and diseased, and most of them are so filthy and covered with scabs that you can’t bear to look at them.” Morbid curiosity lured crowds of gawkers to these beggars, and once a sizable number of people had gathered, the beggar would pull out a small stringed instrument and sing a portion of awell-known epic tale. When he had finished his tale, the beggarwouldwalk around to each of his listeners, holding out his cupped hands to solicit donations (“Yingye xiezhen,” 1875: 8).

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