Characteristics of poking antiques

The accompaniment instruments that poke antiques include erhu, Hu Si and bamboo board. There are as many as six or seven people in shifts, as few as three partners, two companions and even one vagrant. The lyrics of poking antiques are colloquial, and the popular dialects cast a strong local color on them. There are generally four steps in the performance process of poking antiques, namely, calling the venue, opening, signing up and closing. The first three steps are collectively referred to as "hat water", with the purpose of attracting the audience, asking for money and fees, reporting place names and reporting singers. Poke antiques on the basis of folk songs, using the plate of two-person platform, forming a new genre.

Poke ancient style broke through the neat singing methods such as "ditty" and "falling off" in singing, but absorbed the melody singing methods of tunes such as "A single man crying his wife" based on "Happy New Year to a young couple", and borrowed the rap characteristics of other folk arts, fully mobilized the improvisation and exertion of the singer's emotions, and also formed a variety of singing methods. Poke antiques is mainly narrative and story-telling, and the lyrics are exaggerated and improvised. Humorous, simple and popular local style, strong pertinence and sense of the times have formed the distinctive characteristics of poking antiques.