Internet podcast brings new life to ancient legend

Pingshu performer Zhang Zhun delivers The Epic of King Gesar in Mandarin. Wang Jiaquan / Xinhua

Long the purview of singers and storytellers, The Epic of King Gesar is now being introduced to new audiences via a new realm: the Internet.

Han storyteller Zhang Zhun worked with Tibetologist Gyanpian Gyamco to produce a 40-episode podcast in Mandarin based on the vast oral narrative about the warrior with boundless supernatural powers.

The episodes are performed in the pingshu style, which features literary and performance devices, such as the use of a poem or rhyme to begin each story, the striking of a gavel to gain the audience's attention and the use of suspense, by way of a cliffhanger, to end each chapter.

Since King Gesar first aired in mid-December on Litchi FM, a podcast platform, the first 10 episodes have been downloaded more than 40,000 times.

The legend has been traced back as far as the 12th century, and the inherent flexibility of oral storytelling has led to a vast number of narratives. Recurring, popular motifs find Gesar sent by the gods to vanquish monsters, end wars and unify the tribes in Ling, a kingdom on the Tibetan plateau.

Zhang's pingshu version is part of the nonprofit program Ears for Epics, which aims to preserve and promote traditional storytelling. Ears for Epics is the brainchild of the Reading China Salon at the Chinese Culture Translations and Studies Support, the Beijing Dongcheng District Library and Litchi.

Performing the epic in pingshu will not only help Mandarin speakers understand the Tibetan story, but it could also help to popularize pingshu. The 1,000-year-old pingshu style-witnessed a revival in the 1970s and '80s, when radios became widely available. Its popularity waned, however, with the advent of new entertainment alternatives since the 1990s.