Shandong artist Han Fang presents an 800-work homage to erren zhuan, the northeastern stage skit art at the Liu Laogen Museum, including a caricature of master artist Zhao Benshan (below).

One is a veteran stage performer, and the other a ceramics artist. And, when they finally meet, they create enough kinetics to spark the creation of a brand-new art genre. Zhao Ruixue reviews the results.

To capture humor in cold clay is hard. To embody the living stagecraft of performance art in a series of static sculptures takes even greater talent and dedication. But this is what happens when comedy veteran Zhao Benshan chances upon the art of Shandong potter Han Fang. The fruit of their combined talents is now manifested in a permanent exhibition paying homage to the northeastern Chinese art of erren zhuan, the popular multi-disciplinary stage skits performed in a male-female duet. It is an act that combines singing, dancing, comedy, cross-talk and acrobatics, usually involving much twirling of silk handkerchiefs and fans.

Zhao, acknowledged as erren zhuan's most well-known practitioner, has also been its most fervent guardian. He has a school coaching young couples in the art, and his media empire encompassing stage, television and films provide his students with platforms to practice their craft.

He has also built a museum at Beijing's Qianmen East Road dedicated to the history of his native art of erren zhuan. It is here that ceramic artist Han Fang helps showcase the art's finest forms in a series of clay sculptures.

In 2009, Zhao met Han through a friend and became fascinated by his work.

"He thought the characters in my work showed a strong sense of humor and richly reflected the style and flavor of farming life. These were exactly the same characteristics essential to erren zhuan." Han describes their first encounters. As Han recalls, Zhao was also captivated by the "clay fragrance".

One of Zhao's most famous stage characters was an old farmer named Black Earth, who partnered White Cloud, his gap-toothed wife played by another stage veteran Song Dandan. The names were typical of erren zhuan's grassroots base, and it may also explain Zhao's attraction to Han's earthy art.

Han appreciated Zhao's interest in his art and accepted the commission to create a series of ceramic sculptures that would document 300 years of erren zhuan. For Han, it was a project that took him back to his own roots.

Born to a farmer's family in East China's Shandong province, Han later moved to a village in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and grew up there. He is therefore no stranger to the rural lifestyle that had inspired erren zhuan. In fact, his signature works already encompassed much of the grassroots characteristics.

In the summer of 2010, Han handed over his first batch of erren zhuan ceramics to Zhao. This group consisted 50 pieces, each a ceramic vignette of the erren zhuan skits on stage - either singing, striking comic poses or adopting funny gestures to earn laughs from the audience gathered.

Han also captured the response from the audience, laughing and enjoying the performance.