Liu performs clapper talk with youngsters onstage. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Shandong music teacher is mixing traditional compositions with modern techniques to popularize the folk art of clapper talk among youngsters, Zhang Lei reports.

A classroom packed with chatty first-graders at Quanxin primary school in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, hits pin-drop silence as a teacher walks in. His gown and mandarin-collared jacket project a serious demeanor until he fishes out a pair of clappers from his bag and breaks into a rhythmic caper to accompany his narrative singing. The children beam with joy and burst into peals of laughter.

Meet Liu Yawei, a clapper talk performer who is doing his bit to keep the traditional Chinese percussion instrument made of bamboo from sinking into oblivion. Clapper talk is one type of quyi, a general name of all the Chinese folk art forms of narrating stories in the form of storytelling and singing. Besides clapper talks, there are other types such as ballad singing, storytelling and cross-talk.

Liu, 34, has been showered with many titles, including Shandong province's "upward and kindhearted youth". In the eyes of his friends, he wears many hats: He is a music teacher and a TV host. However, the identity Liu cherishes the most is being the "representative inheritor" of Wang clapper talk, one of the three major schools of the art form.

To attract more children to the folk art, Liu Yawei, an inheritor of the Wang school of clapper talk, designs and improves clapper boards. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Persistence and commitment have made him the inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage and the president of Jinan Youth Quyi Alliance, he says.

Liu met Wang Wenxi, known as "the king of clapper talk", during a performance 18 years ago. Wang Wenxi was brought up under the great influence of his father, Wang Fengshan, the partner of the crosstalk master Ma Sanli and the founder of the Wang school of clapper talk.

Wang Wenxi took to the stage at the tender age of 4. Despite being somewhat of a child prodigy, Wang Wenxi's extraordinary cross-talk art and his excellent clapper techniques later in life were in dire need of an inheritor until Liu came along. Wang believed that Liu had the potential to be a good inheritor, because the latter not only revered the folk art, he was also trustworthy and determined.

Liu accepted the role to pass down the heritage, and Wang Wenxi trained him.

On the road to excellence, just a hustle in the veins and a dream that won't die were not good enough. To live up to the expectations of his master, Liu always carried a pair of clappers in his pocket, practiced whenever he had time and recited the lyrics while walking down the street.

If ever the thought of giving up crept into his mind, Liu recalled the teachings of Confucius: "Words must be honest and deeds must be faithful."

Improvisation cemented the bond Wang Wenxi and Liu shared. Whenever the master gave a cue, the disciple took the hint and the two played in tacit understanding. The master tilted his head, immersed in his own performance, while Liu bowed slightly beside him, leaned forward to observe and then responded to the change in the master's movement to light up the interaction.

After graduating from university in 2010, Liu became a teacher at a primary school. He convinced the principal to launch a clapper talk group and the Hongyi Club was thus born. Liu insisted on staging a performance every week. The campus quyi club brought out the star quality in the likes of Cheng Siyuan and Wen Xiuhao who won gold at the national children's quyi competition. Five members of the club are now professional clapper talk artists, contributing to China's quintessential folk art.

In 2017, Liu and his master founded a club called Heshen Quyishe, aiming to play their humble roles in Jinan's ambition to become one of the quyi capitals of China. Liu's girlfriend was initially unhappy with his demanding work schedule. However, when she learned that his master Wang Wenxi insisted on performing in public three days a week, even over 70 years old, she understood Liu's perseverance and decided to marry him.

Once clapper talk began to go out of style, Liu realized he needed to find a way to make performances stand out. "I understood a combination of tradition and modernity was the way," he says.

He sought advice from friends in music and literary circles, and finally, created the group clapper talk piece titled Quancheng Wa, Zan Zhonghua (Fountain Town Kids' Ode to China). They won the top prize for best performance at Shandong Campus Art Festival in 2016. Now, the number of performers in their team has increased from the traditional two or three to at least 26 and a maximum of 56. As the percussion instrument and narrative singing echo, they engage the audience like the performance of an opera troupe. Modern compositions and collective lyrics add to the charm.

The novel program became an instant hit and invitations started pouring in from art venues across the country. "The focus should be on cultivating 'more seedlings' for clapper talk," Liu says. "If you want to do a good job in teaching, you must prepare lessons and form a system to dispense those lessons to students."