The grand occasion of black girl and white girl performing Shandong Drum in Minghu described in Travel Notes of Lao Can.

Liu E, a famous novelist in the late Qing Dynasty, made a detailed and wonderful description of Lao Can's listening to black girls and white girls singing Shandong drums in Minghuju, Jinan. Shandong Drum is the earliest existing folk art in northern China, which is said to have been formed in the late Ming Dynasty.

At first, it was a yangko tune sung by farmers knocking on pieces of plowshare in slack season, so it was called "plowshare drum". Liu E also called it "Pear Drum" in Travel Notes of Lao Can. Since the Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, Shandong Drum has been widely spread in Hebei and Shandong provinces, starting from Liaocheng and Linqing in the south and reaching Dezhou and Cangzhou in the north, and formed five tribes.

among them, there are three main tribes: Nankou School, Laobeikou School and Xiaobeikou School. After Shandong Drum entered Jinan in the late Qing Dynasty, its influence was further expanded. In particular, the exquisite singing of White Girl and Black Girl made this wonderful art popular in the provincial capital, which further promoted its development.

Appreciation of Works

Travels of Lao Can is the representative work of Liu E, a writer in the late Qing Dynasty. This novel focuses on the travel of a well-traveled doctor, and explores social contradictions deeply. In particular, in his book, he dares to denounce upright officials (cruel officials among upright officials) for their mistakes in the country and their harm to the people, and points out with insight that upright officials are often more fatuous than corrupt officials.

At the same time, the novel has reached an extremely high level in many aspects, such as refining the essence of national traditional culture, life philosophy and art, women's aesthetic and equality, characters' psychology and musical scenery description.