Xue Qiaoping, an actress from Ninghai, brought the technique of playing tusks and the stories behind it to the public eye around China on the stage of China’s Got Talent on May 5, 2011.
The audience marveled at Xue’s performance of playing tusks. The applause raised the roof when she showed the eight tusks.
Xue, a girl from Ninghai, joined the Ninghai Opera Troupe in 1997 and was selected to learn the technique of playing tusks in 2000. She came through many unimaginable difficulties to practice the technique. She could only eat bland food because of an oral ulcer and she even starves herself sometimes to keep practicing and performing.
However, she is obsessed with the art.
“The tusks have their lives,” Xue said. One boar has only two tusks. The tusks chosen for playing must be identical in size and match with the performers. According to Xue, it is hard to find one pair of tusks from dozens of boars.
Xue hopes more attention and support could be given to Ninghai Opera and the technique of playing tusks. “We have an obligation to protect and develop the technique of playing tusks, passing it down from generation to generation,” Xue said.
Translated by Wang Zhen
Editor: Dong Lin
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