Plays and Storytelling
25. Radio plays, and the dramatic form of presentation generally, are becoming increasingly popular with radio listeners. Expansion is however handicapped by the lack of good play scripts.
The radio play technique appeals to quite a few young writers, but they are often lacking in the necessary experience. They have therefore been encouraged to begin by adapting the novels and stories of more mature writers; and working along these lines more than 20 full length radio plays have been produced, some based on stories from the classics and others adapted from novels by well known contemporary writers of Hong Kong. Translation from English plays has also been attempted. (See para. 37-Festivals of the Arts)
A shortage of good radio actors also adds to the difficulties of production. The market is highly competitive, and there is a tendency for Radio Hong Kong actors once they have achieved a higher standard through experience to go where the fees offered are higher.
26. A great many listeners still demand that stories from the classics or with historical themes be presented in the straight storytelling style that has so long been a traditional part of Chinese entertainment. The storyteller has merely transplanted himself from the village square or street-corner to the studio; his style remains unaltered, and untainted by modern colloquial speech which tends to make for anachronisms if used to relate a story with a historical background.
Radio Hong Kong's three storytellers, Yip Chi Hong, Chan Po Wai and Lam Shu continued to attract a large following with their classical stories of Chinese chivalry and morals.
Dramatized storytelling, a narrative with dialogue inserts, is also building up a large audience; but here the stories have a modern setting and are mostly tales of unrequited love, the eternal triangle or detective stories.
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