摘要
我比较喜欢京剧，但是，京剧的现状实在令人担心。但最近几年郭德纲的走红，似乎让人对京剧的未来重抱一线希望。
相声曾经与目前京剧的状况一样悲惨，不过，有了郭德纲，我们就知道，世间其实有两种相声：官办相声与传统相声：1990年代以来衰落的不是传统相声，而是官办相声？
Until a decade ago, xiangsheng, also known as 'comic dialog' or 'crosstalk,' faced trouble similar to the current decline of Beijing opera. Then Guo Degang, a xiangsheng performer from Tianjing, rose to prominence, and his popularity in China convinced people that the outlook for xiangsheng is not so grim. Since 1950, the government has controlled many art forms in China, including xiangsheng. The art forms subsequently lost their appeal for the public, and the actors gradually lost their audience. By the 1990s, xiangsheng was on the verge of collapse. Critics argued that xiangsheng had met its demise because society was more developed, standards of living were higher, and the people more sophisticated. In their progressivism, they believed that the doom of xiangsheng was near. But Mr. Guo has his own belief, and that is in the market. He began to perform xiangsheng in theatres as his predecessors did. In a manner, Guo Degang reconstructed the market for xiangsheng. His story tells us that consumers are the most important determinant in a market, and maybe more importantly, that a tradition can be revived if somebody brings it back into the market.
