Also known as "Doggerel", "Jingle" and "Clever Tongue", Shulaibao (a folk art featuring rhythmic storytelling to clapper accompaniment) is popular across China. Originally, it was performed by street entertainers in front of shops for money. In their performances, the entertainers would praise the goods in the shops as treasures for their diversity and exquisiteness, hence the name "Shulaibao", which literally means "counting treasures". It is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, there was discipleship and 13 styles of Shulaibao. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, Shulaibao made it into small opera theatres.
Drawing on their rich life experiences, Shulaibao performers improvise their lyrics according to the things they see and the situation they are in, with some comparing the present with the past, quoting the classics and adding comments to narration. Over the years, a wealth of set lyrics has been accumulated.
Taking a cue from cross talk, a new style of Shulaibao performed by two people came into being, further enhancing the artistic expression. New pieces criticizing the dark side of society were created. The basic sentence patterns of Shulaibao lyrics are characterized by a six-syllable first line and a seven- syllable second line, with the last characters of the two lines sounding the same tone and rhyming with each other. In some cases, monologue is included in the lyrics.
During the evolving process of Shulaibao, a lot of things were used as percussion instruments, such as sorghum stalks, coin-shaped tablets, bamboo clappers, ox hipbones, three clappers, three bowls and hoeing clappers (also called "flat clappers") etc. Currently, the most commonly used instruments are a set of seven clappers, including two big bamboo clappers (called "big clappers") and five small bamboo clappers (called "five-joint" clappers).
