Ever since the communists took over mainland China in 1949, they ignored most traditional arts, but they treated comic dialogues as a sharp weapon of propaganda, developing it far more than other forms of performance.
一九四九年中共統治大陸後，把傳統藝術打入冷宮，卻把相聲作為宣傳利器，使它的發展一枝獨秀。