Masters of rhyme

Meng Xin performing in 2011.

A chance came in 1992, when he was asked to write about old Beijing and perform with ox scapulas.

"The next day I borrowed more than a dozen books, chewed over the contents and ended with boxes of notes," he says.

The final work, titled Singing of Beijing with Shulaibao, is an account of people entering and exiting the gates of old Beijing.

"Gao told me that a piece of work has to be new, unique, ancient or strange to attract an audience," Meng says.

"I added three elements－intellectual, interesting and beautiful."

He once took a whole week to draft copies of rhymes. The work won him top national prizes both in performance and in creative writing in 1997.

His another work, Xiaoping Listening to Storytelling, also won a national prize in 2002.

"The ultimate delight comes from the audience, my mentor always told me," Meng said after an open-air performance in Taoranting Park in southern Beijing recently.

Now, he is searching for more young faces in the audience, who can perhaps inherit his art.