The main performing vehicle of comic dialogues is language, but not language of the ordinary variety--it must be both funny and satirical. If we look at comic dialogue from the history of oral communication, when did it really start? And how has it developed differently in Taiwan and mainland China?

One distant relative of the comic dialogue can be traced far back to the plays of the Zhou dynasty (1122-255 BC). The emperor's entertainers would act and orate at the same time. Besides ordinary dramas, they would often wrap up criticism of the emperor's administration in "sugar coating."

The chapter "Huaji Liezhuan" ("Biographies of Interesting People") in the Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian) records that King Zhuang of Chu's beloved horse grew ill and died, and he planned to conduct a luxurious funeral for the horse in the manner performed for a high-level official. Many of his important ministers tried in vain to dissuade him. Learning about the news, You Meng went before the king, and weepingly lamented, "How can the funeral be conducted in the same manner as a high-ranking official's? It will not be solemn enough unless they are rites fit for a king." Then he rattled off high-speed gibberish about various funerary preparations, until it eventually became clear that he meant the horse should be "buried in someone's belly." In the midst of uproarious laughter, King Zhuang suddenly realized his own ridiculousness, and he changed the horse's burial to one with ordinary rites. This can be described as the prototype of "comic monologues."

In the canjun ("military") dramas of the Tang dynasty, two actors often cracked jokes about some current event, or some phrase from a classical text. They might also wittily criticize the ruler. With the alluring humor of puns, actors in the Song dynasty dared to satirize the unfair exam system and the special privileges that abounded everywhere.

Passing down the art

However, Tien Shih-lin, a winner of the Spoken Arts Heritage Award maintains, "The history and humor of modern comic dialogues are not necessarily linked in a direct line with that of ancient theater, because it is exclusively an art form developed among the people from the humorous jargon of public squares or tea houses."

Legend has it that the founding father of comic dialogues was Zhu Shao-wen, a nineteenth-century scholar who could not pass the mandarin examinations. Driven by the basic necessity of survival, he began to tell stories on the side of the roads, offering up satires of the maladies of his day, called liaodi xiangsheng ("roving monologues"). He also gave himself a stage name which to this day sounds cool: Qiong Bupa ("Not Afraid of Poverty"). Later on, he took on two disciples, Pin Youben ("Poor with Dignity") and Fu Yougen ("Wealthy with Roots"), and they gradually developed "group comic dialogues." Ever since, it has become an art form which masters have passed down to their students, with strict regulations of instruction from generation to generation. For example, Hou Baolin, the late comic dialogue artist of mainland China, was Qiong Bupa's fifth-generation disciple, and the leading master of today, Ma Ji, is of the sixth generation.

Earlier on in the mainland, the social position of spoken-word artists was rather low. Only children from poor families would enter the profession. Outdoor performances would sometimes feature licentious jokes; the taste of teahouse performances was more elevated. Tien Shih-lin remembers when he was a kid, audiences in the vaudeville theaters of Tianjin's tea houses would generously cheer on the performers--"Bravo!"--or relentlessly deride them--"You have no face!"

A musical form

At the early stage of development, comic dialogues were close to being musical dramas. Some comic dialogue performers would put on extra little shows outside the theater to attract an audience. Other performers simply had a background in Peking opera and thus "stole" quite a few performance techniques. For example, they incorporated stage acrobatics and the vocal techniques of musical dramas, and even contemporary pop songs. That was not all--they also performed in local dialects. Sometimes performers would have to spit out in one breath the names of all the dishes in an imperial "Manchurian-Han" banquet, and it only counted as a job well done if they didn't get winded or red in the face.

In fact, comic dialogues are only one kind of spoken art. Although they are extremely simple in form, their popularity with audiences is far greater than other forms of spoken-word art, like shuoshu (story telling), pingshu (stories half-spoken and half-sung), jingyun dagu (oration in the Beijing accent accompanied by drums), zhubanshu (stories accompanied by rhythms beaten on a bamboo block) or taiping geci (a form of lyrical oration).

Direct from Beijing

Comic dialogues in Taiwan were originally "pulled out of thin air." When the nationalist government went to Taiwan in 1949, no professional actors arrived in their wake. Later on, Chen Yi-an, Wei Lung-hao, Wu Chao-nan and others arranged the routines they had become familiar with earlier in Beijing. You could say that comic dialogues were delivered to Taiwan "direct from Beijing."

When the communists took over mainland China, the place where the tradition was invented, they made the best of the art form to "criticize feudalism" and "advocate new ideas." Therefore, they've cultivated many talented actors and sorted out the theory and history of comic dialogues. Wang Chen-chuan feels that even if they are making propaganda, they can still make it funny. For example, "Taking the Wrong Step" advocates the one-child policy by depicting a home thrown into chaos by too many family members. The moral of the story is communicated imperceptibly.

In recent years, another form of comic dialogues called xiaopin has been branching out in the mainland. It has special settings and props, similar to a small farce. Furthermore, with society gradually opening up, new entertainment media have been appearing, and impacting the traditional comic dialogues' performing styles.

Early on, comic dialogue fans in Taiwan secretly tuned in to the radio programs of the mainland with an aim to learn. Since exchanges between the two sides began, many people have crossed the strait to learn the ropes or have gone on observation tours. Actor Li Kuo-hsiu once cooperated in making cassettes with five comic dialogue masters, called "The Two Sides Talk."

Local comic dialogue performers here admit that the mainland actors have a firmer foundation, with which Taiwan cannot compare. However, our advantage is that the thinking here is more open. Will both Taiwan and the mainland be able to make this branch of Chinese comic art blossom? We'll have to wait and see.