Subscribe to free Email Newsletter

Xiangsheng Master Jiang Kun

Jiang Kun was born in 1950 in Beijing. He took to literature when he was a primary school pupil, and joined dramatic activities organized by the local Children's Palace. At the age of 18, he went to the countryside and joined the Heilongjiang Province Production and Construction Corps, but he never gave up his amateur Cultural activities. In 1976, he was transferred to the Central Broadcasting Recitation and Ballad Troupe as aXiangshengactor He studied under Ma Ji in his spare time. Before long, another actor in the troupe, Li Wenhua, became his partner in performing cross-talk comic dialogue. In 1999, he founded a well-known website for Chinese literature and became the first person that promotes ChineseQuyiculture via the Internet. He is now a national grade-A actor in the Chinese Broadcasting Recitation and Ballad Troupe.

Taking Photos, which he wrote himself, reflects the ultra-"left" atmosphere during the Cultural Revolution. It established his position in the field ofXiangsheng. Since the 1980s, he has performed a number of cross-talk comic dialogues with Li and other partners, includingPoems, Songs and Love,The Story of the NoseandWatching Television. His most popular items are those written byXiangshengwriter Liang Zuo and performed together with Tangjiezhong. They areReverie in the Jaws of Death,Front Page NewsandAn Adventure in an Elevator. These vividly portrayed the state of mind of ordinary people in the early period of reform and opening to the outside world. These items are calledXiangshengwhich reflect social psychology. As the items compiled and performed by Jiang Kun mainly deal with the joys, contradictions, aspirations and helplessness of people who find it hard to keep abreast of the times, so it is very hard to classify his items by the usual rules in the categories of satire and praise.

Jiang Kun (left) and Li Wenhua in a cross comic dialogue

Compared with his seniors, Jiang Kun has a more original performing style and pays more attention to entirety in terms of the expression of the content of his performances. His performances have little trace of deliberately showing off his special talent, for he puts more stress on harmony.