Zhao Benshan's Skits

 Zhao Benshan's TV Series

About 15 years ago, Zhao Benshan, a farmer actor from Northeast China, brought the countryside laughter to the highly renowned CCTV Spring Festival Party. Northern Liaoning's skit, a new art form with its simple and unaffected humor and a touch of homeliness, has since found its place in China's tiptop art scene, winning deafening applause from the nation's audience. Today, Zhao Benshan is not only a skit actor who has brought the most laughter and won the most applause since the 1980s, but also is a director and producer of two hot "farmer TV series." Recently, he unexpectedly joined China Football (Soccer) League's Liaoning Club as its chairman, unveiling a new chapter of his life.

   Zhao Benshan's Legendary Life

Born in a small village of Kaiyuan County in Tieling City of North China's Liaoning Province , Zhao Benshan has been recognized as a folk performing legend who grew up in a peasant household.

Zhao became an orphan at the age of six, and then moved to live with a blind uncle who taught him various performing skills. Due to his hard work, he became highly skilled at playing the erhu (a two-stringed violin), the suona (a kind of Chinese trumpet), and especially the sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument), singing popular tunes, and performing song-and-dance duets. Zhao views the hardships endured during his childhood as having been a blessing in his life, as the difficulties laid a solid foundation for his skits as well as performing career.

He joined the commune art and literature publicity team at 17, and later became a member of an amateur troupe of Weiyuan town before being transferred temporarily to the Xifeng County Troupe for song-and-dance duet performances.

In 1982, Liaoning Province held the First Countryside Opereta Show, and Zhao Benshan rose to fame as a result of his performance as a blind man in Breaking the Sanxian, which won the first prize. In the same year, he joined the Tieling Troupe, serving as both the leading actor and the business president. In 1986, he was transferred to the Tieling Folk Art Troupe...

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