But Yin and a few of his elderly colleagues decided they must not give it up. They returned to a small teahouse called Yanle in Tianjin in 1999, not to make money but to continue the tradition of xiangsheng. Yin also co-founded the troupe, Zhong You. To his surprise, their performances were warmly welcomed, and they were soon invited to perform in other teahouses such as Mingliu and Qianxiangyi.

At first, their audiences were mostly senior people, but young people gradually took more seats. Today, listening to xiangsheng has become chic for many young people in Tianjin. It is even hard for elderly people to go to Mingliu and Qianxiangyi, where young people often book all the tickets.

Now Yanle is Tianjin's only teahouse where mainly senior audiences frequent the comic talk shows. This is fitting, because Yanle is located at Nanshi, an old area of Tianjin that was once the center of xiangsheng in the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, Yanle charges only eight yuan (US$1) for a show ticket plus a cup of tea, which is cheaper than the regular price of 10 yuan in other teahouses.

Yanle can only hold about 100 people, and after paying the venue's rent, the performers have very little left for their income.

"We had thought of giving up Yanle several times, but we couldn't make the decision," said Yin. "Zhong You means 'friends of the audience,' and we should serve all kinds of audience, including senior people."

Zhong You offers a repertoire of mostly traditional works. In contrast, Haha Xiao, another well-known group in Tianjin, has come up with more new works to keep up with the times.

"Xiangsheng is a most up-to-date form of performance," said Ma Shuchun, director of the Haha Xiao group. "We pay much attention to creating new works and injecting new elements into traditional works."

While the performers are writing new works, more people have come forward to offer ideas for original works on the Internet. Ma and his partner Tong Youwei won the first prize in the first Internet Xiangsheng Competition of China in 2004 with a new work titled "The Olympic Dream," written by Lila, host of a BBS at the "Zhonghua Xiangsheng Net" (www.xiangsheng.org). 

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