Du Baolin

Du Baolin was a pear-syrup candy seller in late-Qing and early-Republican Hangzhou whose dates are unknown. In 1905 he began selling his candy with the sung news-ballad form, replacing simple ditties and jokes with short pieces that had plots, characters and conflict. Because the pieces often mocked the times and drew the attention of constables, he called the act xiaorehun, 'a little feverish', as if it were the raving of a fevered man. It settled into a solo form, sung to a small gong the performer beat himself. In the early Republic he was invited to Hangzhou's Gai Shijie amusement park, where he borrowed pieces such as 'The Xiaoshan Man Worships the Door Gods' and the dialect-mimicry and sound-imitation skills of Hangzhou screen-voice theatre. His pupils Jiang Xiaoxiao and Bao Lele later took the art to Shanghai.