The origin of timid cross talk

Tianjin TV's "Hold Up Tomorrow's Sun - 1996 Spring Festival Gala" recorded the traditional joke "Fortune Telling" performed by famous crosstalk actors Li Boxiang and Du Guozhi1.

Li Boxiang's performance absorbed the essence of the performances of Li Jiechen and his disciple Zhao Xinmin, combined with his own characteristics, and organized and rehearsed this piece to cater to the fast-paced requirements of today's young audiences. The actors imitated the performance realistically, and the audience continued to applaud and laugh. The applause and laughter are undoubtedly the audience and actors standing together to vigorously criticize and flog the superstitious trend that has been revived in recent years. The blind man's "calculation" hexagram is full of loopholes and contradictions, and cannot be justified, which fully exposes this deceptive trick. I wonder if the audience understands the theme of "The Cowardly Fortune Teller". It does not stop at satirizing the blind fortune teller, but through the performance of this fake fortune teller, it exposes the people who don't know how to pretend to understand, who use all their tricks to "see money" The behavior of a liar is of practical significance.

Since "Fortune Telling" is a traditional program with a strong ideological focus and is very popular with the audience, why has it only met the majority of TV audiences today? The reason lies in the word "cowardly". There are many crosstalks with the word "cowardly", so we might as well call them "cowardly crosstalk". The "cowardly cross talk" had a glorious period in the 1930s and 1940s, with more than 30 pieces of repertoire, a wide range of themes, and a popular theater effect. It was tainted by the word "cowardly". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, "cowardly cross talk" almost disappeared in theater performances and radio broadcasts. The reason was also "implicated" by "cowardly".

One of the original meanings of "coward" is the derogatory name used by Beijingers in the old days for the local pronunciation, which was called "coward". The extended meaning of "coward" is the contempt and derogation of outsiders (including city people and country people) by insiders, which is called "coward", "coward", etc. The meaning of "cowardly cross talk" does not deviate from its original meaning and extended meaning.