Pingtan Peiyu
(edit) Hey-hey, I found the childhood performance pictured below, 9 min long and very lovable.
弹词开篇《新木兰辞》Tanci opening Xin Mulan Ci (New Ballad of Mulan) 
[DOWNLOAD] 18MB
…..
Earlier we briefly mentioned Wang Peiyu’s childhood career as a Suzhou pingtan performer. Now and then you still can hear her singing ballads, I bet the audience at conferences or lectures is always asking her to do so.
On the snapshot below you can see her 9 years old self. Isn’t she adorable?
(Picture is from 
this short documentary, it’s not the newest edition but you can peep into Peiyu’s gardrobe and have a look at her collection of neckties. :P)
Recently I found a tolerable copy of the 2001 CCTV jingju competition finals (check it out here), in that she performs a popular pingtan piece, Qing Tan. (I knew I already wrote a summary to this story.)
To be sincere, I don’t like her look. Evening gown and her short hair create an unpleasant contrast. In this article, published two days ago, Peiyu mentions that her mother always wanted her to be more girly, feminine off-stage, masculine on-stage, just like Meng Xiaodong. Maybe she wanted to favor her mom with this outfit. :)
Unlike when bearded, she’s singing with the appropriate local accent. I adore people who can speak more accents… When I try to sing or pronounce Chinese words, the result is always the same: Hungarian accent. >< Distinctive yet ridiculous.
苏州评弹《情探》Suzhou Pingtan Qing Tan (Exploring Emotions) [DOWNLOAD] 8MB
Performed by Wang Peiyu (王珮瑜).
Betrand said,
May 26, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Hello,
The short documentary is actually 23 minutes long and quite enjoyable.
We see Wang Peiyu’s apartment, clean, modern, and well lit. It’s the resting place of the real Wang Peiyu, someone quite disciplined and with good taste.
There are a lot of outdoor shots, I enjoy those because I can travel to China without ever having been there.
There is one scene near a stream in a city park where Wang Peiyu explains something to her blue-clad interviewer, she points to her throat. What do the subtitles say?
Betrand said,
May 26, 2012 at 3:14 pm
My wife has way more closet space than a Peking Opera Star.
I don’t know what that means but it troubles me.
Fern said,
May 26, 2012 at 3:38 pm
The interviewer is asking her how come that her voice is different when singing pingtan, different when singing laosheng… Peiyu explains that it takes rather long time of practice, for example when she was young (let’s say younger :P), they went out in the early morning, facing the walls, the trees and “yelling”, 30 different sounds, and when they were able to control this tone, then the drill began to lower their voices (here she’s pointing to her throat), then relax that voice… With this kind of practice you can achieve that comparatively rough, strong tone what’s required for laosheng.
Fern said,
May 26, 2012 at 3:39 pm
I bet Li Shengsu has bigger closet than Wang Peiyu, with all the gowns she gets from designers to wear at concerts.
Geza said,
June 4, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Wang Rongrong must not have a closet. She just wears that one blue dress all the time. It must be wash and dry!
Fern said,
June 4, 2012 at 8:01 pm
And Dong Yuanyuan’s favorite must be that pink fluffy pullover. :)