Performers adapt to the online stage

Combination of genres

In addition to indie musicians, many other artists have taken to social media platforms to continue performing.

Peking Opera players from the Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing and the Nanjing Peking Opera Troupe in Jiangsu province have staged online rehearsals for the companies' new production, Death of Guangxu Emperor.

A combination of genres, including singing, dancing, acrobatics and martial arts, Peking Opera, or jingju, has a history of more than 200 years, and UNESCO declared it an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.

The new production, directed by Li Zhuoqun and which is the first collaboration between the two companies, centers around the last 10 days of the emperor's life and his failed Hundred Days of Reform.

"We haven't stopped working on the production, from the music to the costume design. Everything is done through the internet," said Li, a 34-year-old director and scriptwriter.

Since Feb 17, crosstalk, or xiangsheng, performers from the Hip-hop Crosstalk Club in Beijing have been streaming shows online every night from 8 pm.

Led by Gao Xiaopan, the club's founder, the artists perform for about two hours, featuring crosstalk in different forms. These include: dankou or monologue; duikou (performed by two actors); and qunkou (performed by three or more people). Other traditional Chinese folk art forms are featured, such as pingshu (storytelling) and kuaiban (a traditional Chinese talk show recited to the rhythm of bamboo clappers).

Xiangsheng performers traditionally stage a show called fengxiang at the end of the lunar year. To mark the start of a lunar year, they give a performance titled kaixiang.

Gao, 35, who founded the club in 2008, said, "We gave our kaixiang performance online for the first time and all such shows we stage are free."

The club is popular with young Chinese audiences, as the players, clad in long robes, give a contemporary twist to performances.

"Xiangsheng is a kind of comedy and about making people laugh－a meaningful purpose during these difficult days in particular," Gao said.