The last storytelling theater in E China

Lin Hairong performs Fuzhou Pinghua - telling stories in the Fuzhou dialect - at the Yuye storytelling theater in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian province, June 6, 2013. The theater was transformed from an abandoned workshop, attracting elderly audiences from 60 years of age to even some who are more than 90 years old, just to listen to Fuzhou Pinghua. Fuzhou Pinghua can be traced to the Song Dynasty (420-479 AD), and was placed in the first national intangible cultural heritage list from 2006. From the 1930s to the 1960s, theaters for Fuzhou Pinghua could be found in the streets and lanes in Fuzhou. However, with China's rapid development, the number of storytellers has dropped to about 30 from the original 500, and all of them are more than 50 years old. [Photo/icpress.cn]