Funny business

Guo Degang (center) and his performance partner, Yu Qian (left), escort visiting Australian politician Daniel Andrews on a tour of the Forbidden City. Jiang Dong / China Daily

Guo goes with the flow of the Internet age.

His Sina Weibo micro blog has more than 20 million followers, and each of his tweets easily gets thousands of re-tweets.

"Weibo is a very good platform for promotion and audience interaction," Guo says.

"With my Weibo, I feel like I own several newspapers."

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Cross-talk became popular throughout North China throughout the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

However, the art form declined after the 1960s because of China's political movements and the planned economy under which cross-talk artists had to be recruited by State-owned troupes.

The genre has undergone a revival since the late 1990s, as independent artists have been staging more shows in teahouses and theaters.

Guo and his colleagues at Deyun Co are a major force in the revival movement.

He's certainly the most successful among the independent cross-talk artists and private troupes performing in Beijing, Tianjin and other cities.

He not only performs cross-talk, but also hosts TV shows and acts in films and TV dramas.

He owns five theaters where his contracted artists perform, a clothing brand and a restaurant.

He ranks 32nd on the 2012 Forbes China Celebrities Chart. He earned 27.1 million yuan ($4.35 million) this year, making him by far the richest cross-talk performer.

Guo was born into an ordinary family in Tianjin and didn't finish secondary school. But he made millions through witty interpretations of the urban poor's perspectives.

He's a hero for many youth with comparable backgrounds. More than 100 students from across the country apprentice under him through Deyun.

Guo gave talks about the culture of cross-talk at two top US universities - Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University - at the invitation of their Chinese students' unions.

One young woman at Columbia asked if she could become Guo's apprentice. He suggested she remain a listener.

"Listening to cross-talk is very easy and enjoyable, but performing it is extremely difficult," he says.

"Otherwise, why would you pay to hear me talk?"

Contact the writer at muqian@chinadaily.com.cn.