By day Xu Quanfa is a fisherman and a part-time electrician, but at night he's a walk-on actor and a host to one of China's most interesting entertainment productions. For the past four years, the 50-year-old man has been living a hectic life-style since The Impressions of Liu Sanjie began performing in Yangshuo, an hour's drive from Nanning, capital city of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Staged on the Lijiang River, the 70-minute performance is based on the legend of Liu Sanjie. Featuring one of the world's largest natural stages, it combines the classical Liu's folk songs, ethnic groups' cultures and the fishing lights.
Nearly 600 people perform in the show, half of who are men aged between 18 and 58. They are recruited from five villages nearby, Mushan, Mushanza, Tianjiahe, Maozaishan and Xingping.
Over the past four years, Xu hasn't taken off one day from the show, except in January, when the performance suspended temporarily due to the winter weather.
He has even given up drinking because of the directors' order to protect his voice.
"My ancestors were all farmers, but I have broken the circle to become an actor," Xu says.
"Despite the hardships, I never think about giving up the job. Being an actor, in effect, is what I feel most proud of my life."
When first rehearsing the show, the directors, which have included Zhang Yimou, first recruited students from the local art institute to pole the bamboo rafts on the river.
But according to Shen Guoqiang, general manager of Guilin Guangwei Wenhua Tourism and Culture Industry Limited Corporation, the students didn't perform as well as could be.
"Then, it crossed our mind that local farmers and fishermen, who grew up here would be a good choice," he recalls.
The farmers showed great interest in acting, as being an actor seemed so far away from their every day life. More than 100 people applied for the job.
"The big difference between professional actors and the farmers was that actors tried hard to imitate what fishermen do, while the farmers did what they normally did in real life. So, they got the job," Shen says.
However, the farmer-actors refused to sign a contract at the beginning, as they didn't want to be restricted by any conditions. Later on, the local government stepped in to persuade them to do it.
More trouble followed. To ask for a pay rise, the walk-on actors went on strike without any notice on May 1, 2004. It caught the managing team on the hop, as all tickets had been sold out and people were about to come to see the show.
"They all lay down on the grassland to tender a protest," Shen recalls, "We had to pledge them one by one to give us more time to sort out the matter."
Finally, the sound of gongs, indicating the start of the performance, brought the impasse to an end. A few actors got up and walked to the rafts, then more people followed.
When the fishing lights turned on at the natural stage, Shen felt so relieved to see all the walk-on actors go to their respective places.
Pay has increased from 300 yuan ($42) to 800 yuan ($114) per month.
When the Golden weeks - National Day Holiday for instance - come, they put on one more show at night to cater for the extra Chinese and overseas tourists. The monthly salary can reach 1,400 yuan ($200) in these busier times.
Deng Youming goes on stage twice every night: once poling a raft for leading role Liu Sanjie; another time participating in the program blue impression.
Normally, the 43-year-old man gets to the backstage at 6 pm after 40-minute motorbike ride. He does not need to put on make-up, he just changes into costume and gets ready for the show. When describing how much he loves his acting work, the farmer uses the word "cherish".
"People comment, if you missed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, come to Yangshuo and our show will make up for it," Deng says during the break, his nose dripping with sweat.
"Being part of the show instructed by famous directors is my great pleasure."
Compared with Deng, Xu has a more important role, which is to make an opening speech in the performance.
"Half of our actors are local farmers, this is why we want to have a farmer representative to host the show," says Wei Zhiwen, deputy sales manager of the tourism and culture corporation.
Considering the fact that Xu used to be a teacher, who has a certain
educational background, and more importantly, speaks better Mandarin than others, the job went to him.
"I never feel nervous even though the country's leaders come to watch the show, but for years, I felt stressed to make a speech alone," he says.
"Every single world needs to be pronounced clearly and loudly" he explains, "I am so glad several other people have shared the burden with me since this summer."
In the speech, the farmer claims to have six fish hawks to go fishing with him. But he has 15 in reality, and all of them participate in the show too. Even his son has joined the performance.
"Unlike in the past, the part-time job has become very popular among the farmer actors who want their whole families to appear on the stage, as it brings stable incomes without affecting their daily work. So they love the job a lot," Shen comments.
Wu Peichi has seen the show many times since the salesman worked at the corporation. But even now, he still feels touched when seeing the farmers' performances.
"They have a slow-paced life during a day, while they are transformed into a busy actor at night. It is easy to do for one day, but difficult to persist for years," the young man says.
"What's more, the special lifestyle has made many of them abandon their bad habits, such as gambling and excessive drinking for instance," Wu adds.
In order to ensure the performance quality, all the actors and actress are required to stage eight rehearsals a year. Shen denies updating the show, even though the directors want to do it. "Our audiences change everyday, so there is no need to alter the show," the 52-year-old says.
In 2004, the number of the show's audiences was 330,000, while the figure jumped to 1 million last year.
