The Lang Ting Tang Man (Chinese Story Teller with a Guitar like Musical Instrument)

The Lang Ting Tang Man, olden days busker!

It has been a very long time since I last saw a Lang Ting Tang Man (name in Penang Hokkien dialect) singing on the street. These Chinese story tellers wander around the country telling stories, normally Chinese classics using song and playing music from a guitar like instrument (looks like a banjo). The normal stories were from the era of Romance of The Three Kingdom, Chinese Romeo & Juliet (Butterfly Lovers), Water Margin (my favourite) and many more which I cannot recall anymore. Some of the stories were funny. I think I saw the last of this Lang Ting Tang Man in my hometown when I was a boy. The guy at my hometown in Butterworth has a few pieces of long metal plates with Chinese characters attached to the end of his guitar. He used the metal plates for fortune telling by charging a small fee for it. He will start by singing some old Chinese songs and then ask the customer to choose a piece of metal plate for him to interpret. There is a picture of a Lang Ting Tang Man in the Penang Museum and I actually highlighted it to my kids when we were there 3 weeks ago. To my surprise, last week I saw this octogenarian (80 years old) Lang Ting Tang Man at the Kepong Baru Wet market, sitting under the hot morning sun singing away. His little guitar is a bit more of a modern type as it has an output to a loudspeaker without any casing. Other than singing, I don’t think this guy read fortune for customers. Sadly, not many people really paid attention to this poor old aged entertainer from a long gone era. He was at this location in front of a music record shop for one week in a row already, giving them some sort of a competition. I couldn’t resist giving him a little donation, a small token that I can afford!