Scope and arrangement
The Grace Chang collection on Baoting Chang was created in thr 2020s and chronicles the performing career and memorial service of Chinese Xiang Sheng ("cross-talk comedy") performer Baoting Chang. The collection is composed of document and video files, created and compiled by Grace Chang, that reproduce print photographs of Chang, the Chang family, and Chang's Xiang Sheng partners; periodical press clippings of Chang's career; books written about Chang and the Chang family; manuscripts written by Chang; Chang's Xiang Sheng scripts; Chang's awards and memorabilia; and video and sound recordings of Chang and the Chang family's radio, television, and film performances from the 1920s to 2018. The majority of the documents and videos depict photographs, scripts, and performances from the 1950s to the 1990s.
The video and document files are arranged alphabetically by performer, then by original format.
Five of the documents are copies of slideshows with embedded digitized copies of print photographs depicting Chang's performances and rehearsals, Chang's writing, periodical press clippings of Chang's career, a list of books written about Chang and the Chang family, and Chang's awards and memorabilia. The materials appearing in the documents date from the 1920s to the 2010s. These five slideshow documents contain captions that Grace Chang wrote in Chinese and English.
The other document files are scans of Baoting Chang's Xiang Sheng scripts and books about Chang and his family. These files are in Chinese and the reproduced materials date from 1958 to 2018.
The video files hold television and video segments from the end of Chang's life; audio recordings of Chang and Lianan Chang's radio skits and performances; Chang's filmed or videoed stage and television performances; and a video about Chang and his male relatives' performing careers. The videos reuse photographs and sound and video recordings from the 1930s to 2015.
Chang's end-of-life videos incorporate clippings from his final appearance on-stage, his memorial service, a television segment on the Chang family, and television clips announcing his death.
The video files featuring original audio recordings of Xiang Sheng sketches fall into two categories: repurposed radio broadcasts from the National People's Broadcasting Station and audio recordings of Chang's performances. The radio broadcasts spotlight either Chang or Lianan Chang's national radio sketches. These video files open with an image of Lianan Chang and his sons with a title text summarizing the skit superimposed on the image. The image highlights the performer who speaks in the audio recording.
The other category of video files are of Baoting Chang's audio performances, but it is unclear whether they are from stage, radio, or television performances. The videos open with a picture of the actors performing the sketch with the title and their names in Chinese and English superimposed on the image. The picture fades into a title card summarizing the sketch in English, and the title card fades into another picture of the actors. The videos end with a downward scan of Chang's biographical book and his name and lifespan dates. While Quanfu Bai acts as Chang's Xiang Sheng partner in the majority of the videos, there are also appearances by Baofeng Chang, Chang's son Guide Chang, Lianan Chang, Runjie Li, Zhicun Ma, Wenmao Su, Peiyuan Wong, Dekui Xv, and Shaohua Yang.
The rest of the videos are made up of Chang's filmed or videoed stage and television performances as well as a video about him and his male relatives. The video about the Chang family features clips of performances and interviews with Xiang Sheng comedians. Of note are three different performances of Peking Street Peddlers.