As storytelling is a traditional art that is passed on orally, over time, many good storytelling materials lost in the process. In order to preserve the precious folk literature, Shan set a target for himself: to write down all the stories he knows during his lifetime so they can be passed down to later generations. During the daytime, he runs among various TV and radio stations, busily recording his stories, while at night, he bends over his desk, writing down the stories. Over a period of more than ten years, he has compiled and published 47 storytelling novels, with more than 20 million Chinese characters.
In almost every storytelling program at different TV and radio stations, traditional repertoires used to be the routine, and there were few storytelling themed on real life. Therefore, while creating and compiling those traditional storytelling repertoires, Shan made bold attempts to incorporate modern history, with much success. For example, the tales he created, such as, Hundred-year Wind and Cloud,Zhang Zuolin and Hero Zhang Xueliang, were all well received.
In 2005, he has recorded a hundred-episode A Documentary on Seizing the Notorious Robbers, which was adapted from A Documentary on Big and Important Cases of 1990s. In his words, the police officers have paid a lot to crack down on crimes and to maintain the social security and stability; therefore it is the art and literary workers' responsibility to promote their heroic deeds. Besides, he noted, it can also enhance people's awareness of law in an art form that people love.
In Shan's opinion, storytelling, as a traditional art, should follow up with the pace of times. He feels that with unceasing innovations and close-to-life materials, storytelling has a bright future.
In his spare time, Shan likes to read books, newspapers, and the news, which is in fact a kind of material accumulation for his storytelling. Fifty years has passed since he began his career as a storyteller at 21, and he has never stopped making efforts to perfect his artistic performance in between. With his passion and perseverance in the art, Shan has won the audience' hearts, and is acclaimed as "an evergreen tree in Quyi circles."
Over the recent years, however, Shan has been plagued by the problem of no successors to carry forward the traditional art of storytelling. Therefore, he started an art school, and especially opened a major in storytelling performance, which is meant to cultivate a batch of young storytellers to develop the art.
Not long before, the old artist celebrated his 70th birthday. Though advanced in age, Shan remains active in the stage, and continues to bring laughter to millions of households.
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