Shandong Kuaishu is a form of Quyi
arts with most of its contents spoken during performance. It originated
in the reigns of Daoguang and Xianfeng (early 19th century) in the
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in Linqing and Jining areas of East China's Shandong
Province and popular in northern China and Shandong. Shandong Kuaishu was
then popularly called Wu the Second or Telling Stories about the Big
Fellow, for the storytelling artists mainly performed the story of Wu
Song's Fight with the Tiger, a figure in the classical novel Shui Hu
(Outlaws of the Marsh).
Shandong Kuaishu is performed in
Shandong dialect and performers usually stand while singing. During the
performance, performers often make use of gesture and eyes and exaggerated body
language to build dramatis personae and, at the same time, pay much attention to
humor and creation of suspense. Most Shandong Kuaishu lyrics are
seven-character lines with a humorous language and vivid scenario, and
performers use exaggerated expression and speak in quick rhythms. The art form
is especially suited to tell heroic stories and describe acrobatic fighting in
Chinese operas or dances. In the early period, most performers used two tiles to
beat time, later ferula or armor plates and now copperplates.
In the early 1950s, Shandong Kuaishu
was introduced into Beijing and Tianjin, and it was still performed in Shandong
dialect. The humorous performing style got recognized by audiences and
quickly spread to different places in northern
China.