Ma Sanli

Also known as Born Ma Guifu

Ma Sanli, born Ma Guifu, was a Hui whose family came from Yongchang in Gansu; he was born in 1914 into a Beijing family of storytellers and grew up in Tianjin. His grandfather Ma Chengfang told pingshu and his father Ma Delu was one of the eight 'De' masters of xiangsheng. Leaving school after junior middle school, he became a pupil of Zhou Deshan around 1930 and performed in the teahouses of Tianjin and Beijing with a series of partners. His relaxed surface and tight timing, restrained and plain, made him a master of rapid patter and literary wordplay, and his manner is known as the Ma school. His signature pieces include Kai Zhouchang, Kua Zhuzhai, Huanghe Lou and Mai Hou, which made the phrase Ma Daha a byword for carelessness. He gave his farewell performance in Tianjin in 2001 and died there in February 2003.