Mar 06, 2023 07:46 PM

CHINA

Photo Essay: The Plight of China’s Blind Storytellers

By Chen Liang and Li Hang

Blind storytellers perform at the 2017 Majie folk art fair in Pingdingshan, Central China’s Henan province. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

Blind storytellers perform at the 2017 Majie folk art fair in Pingdingshan, Central China’s Henan province. Photo: Chen Liang/Caixin

In rural areas of Central China’s Henan province, the visually impaired have three main ways to support themselves: storytelling, fortune telling, or massage.

Armed with a Zhuizi, a traditional three-stringed instrument, and a wooden clapper, blind storytellers sing and share stories in the Henan dialect, which lends to the performance’s name — Henan Zhuizi.

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