News.MyShantou.net

Wearing loose T-shirts marked “I love ST” (ST meaning Shantou), baggy pants, hats, head scarves and fat shoes, the rappers looked slightly out of place on stage in the Great Hall of Shantou University on May 4, 2008. They looked as though they were being controlled by the music and they swung their bodies to the beat. The audience was riveted to the music and clapped along, even thought they didn’t understand what the group was saying: Unique among hip-hoppers, these artists were rapping in Chaoshan dialect. Read more…

The man was repeatedly flinging five tennis balls into the air. After launching the balls, he would catch two in his hand and keep the other three in the air doing all kinds of fancy tricks. He calls the tricks “hand skills.” 33-year old Yang Yong is one of a number of Henan acrobats who left declining interest in the art form back home to find it thriving in Shantou. Read more…