The comic dialogue is a kind of performing form in the Chinese folk art forms with the most obvious humorous characteristics and comedy style. In addition, it is also the folk art from with the largest influence and the warmest welcomed folk art form. One point that the students who are learning Mandarin Chinese should know is that it is widely popular in the rural and urban areas in both the south and the north of China. Therefore, you can enjoy the cross talk in everywhere in China.
As a matter of fact, there were many performing forms similar to the performance of the comic dialogue in Chinese history, which all have the same attracting point of attracting the audiences with the intelligent dialogues and the humorous stories. As a kind of independent performing art, the comic dialogue was originally formed in Xianfeng Emperor Period in Qing Dynasty which was last from 1851 to 1861. The known earliest artists of the cross talk were Zhang Sanlu and Zhu Shaowen.
When it came to the late of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the cross talk art was performed and enriched gradually in the performing skills. At the same time, a large group of comic dialogue artists stand for different styles of cross talk appeared. Just as those foreign students who are interested in Chinese culture all know, the cross talk is a king of folk art form to realize the artistic appreciation of beauty with the way of entertaining the audiences. As a result, the basic requirement of the comic dialogue performance is to make the audiences laugh.
The language materials that make the audiences laugh in the cross talk are called the cloth-wrappers of those performers. Usually speaking, it is demanded to show the laughing points both unexpectedly and certainly so that the audiences will feel it is out of expect but think it is reasonable after thinking twice. Therefore, the performers always use the method of letting the enemy off in order to catch him later.
All kinds of wisdom and thinking ways as well as the figures of speech are usually applied to the cross talk performance. Of course, the importance of the cross talk is not only to please the audiences, but also to enlighten the audiences and to express thoughts and love and hate. The most popular form is the comic dialogue processed by two persons.