Xiyu Thatched Cottage

Xiyu Thatched Cottage

Xiyu Thatched Cottage is a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Xiyu Thatched Cottage is located in Xishi, Huangdai Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou. It faces south with its back to the north and currently consists of one floor hall and one flower hall, both with flush gable roofs. There are two brick-carved gate towers. The floor hall is 10.5 meters wide and 10.6 meters deep, with corridors at the front and rear, along with additional wing rooms. A plaque inscribed with “Xiyu Thatched Cottage” hangs downstairs. The flower hall features a canopy inlaid with multicolored stained glass panels, and the floor is paved with diagonally laid finely ground square bricks.

With a history of over 170 years, Xiyu Thatched Cottage, under the attention, protection, and proper utilization by relevant departments, has been transformed into the “Huangdai Pingtan Exhibition Hall” in Suzhou and opened to the public. It is the most sizable and high-grade pingtan exhibition venue at the township level in southern Jiangsu. The hall displays over a hundred precious old photographs and musical instruments and costumes once used by famous pingtan performers, chronicling the century-long history of Huangdai’s storytelling venues. Hundreds of vintage photos vividly document 46 renowned pingtan masters who performed at Huangdai from the late Qing Dynasty to the present, including Cao Hanchang, Xu Yunzhi, Yan Xueting, and Huang Yian, offering a glimpse into the bustling performances of the time through text and imagery. Upon learning about the establishment of the exhibition hall, many pingtan masters contributed their own “treasures,” such as pipas, sanxians, cheongsams, and changshans they once used. Huangdai Town has also been home to many notable artists. The exhibition hall has also gathered performance materials of Xia Yunquan, Cheng Dakun, and Xue Manfang, including the original manuscripts and award certificates of the famed pingtan playwright Zhu Ezi, as well as valuables like the pocket watch and folding fan donated by Mr. Xia Yunquan, all of which hold significant historical value. The storytelling venue in Huangdai, Xiangcheng District, dates back to the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty, boasting a history of over a hundred years and is one of the oldest folk pingtan venues in Suzhou. Pingtan has long been beloved by the people of Huangdai. By the end of the Republican era, the three-li-long street was home to nine storytelling venues, including Xuyuan, Changyuan, Wanfuyuan, and Sanjingyuan. The vivid and lifelike miniature colored sculptures in the exhibition hall recreate the bustling scene of those times. Renowned pingtan artists such as Jin Shenbo, Wang Binqian, and Yan Xueting have all performed in Huangdai. “To perform storytelling on the road, one must pass the Huangdai test to be considered skilled,” which speaks to the prestige of Huangdai’s storytelling venue, highly regarded in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai pingtan community.