Suzhou Pingtan Museum, Traditional performing arts museum in Gusu District, China.

The Suzhou Pingtan Museum is dedicated to a traditional Chinese art form where storytellers combine narratives with musical instruments. The building houses numerous objects and materials that show how this performance art functions and what forms it has taken over time.

The art form developed over several centuries in the region, combining oral storytelling tradition with local musical styles. The museum itself was established to document and preserve this long artistic history.

Pingtan, an art form from Jiangsu province, continues to shape how local audiences experience storytelling and music together. Visitors can see how this narrative tradition remains present in daily cultural life through performances and exhibitions.

The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday and admission is free; only the afternoon pingtan performance in the "Wuyuan Shenchu" storytelling hall requires a ticket. The building is the late Qing/early Republican Shen residence at No. 3 Zhongzhangjia Lane, 839 square metres in size, with five exhibition areas. Allow time to sit in the listening room, where recordings of past masters can be played on demand.

The museum's special Chen Yun room stems from a 2003 donation: his family gave 6 crates holding 562 boxes of pingtan recordings and materials he had collected. Chen Yun, a former Standing Committee member of the Politburo, was a devoted pingtan listener, and the room displays that gift.