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Quyi (qǔ yì 曲艺) refers to folk vocal art forms (mín jiān kǒu tóu yìshù 民间口头艺术) such as ballad singing (mín gē 民歌), story-telling (píng shū 评书), comic dialogue (xiǎo pǐn 小品), clapper talk (kuài bǎn 快板) and crosstalk (xiàng sheng 相声).

Deeply rooted in China, the art is divided into three style categories and subdivided into 400 parts the three major styles are story-telling, story-singing, and joke-telling.

Story-telling can be either words alone, or words accompanied by music. One of the most representative non-music styles in the North is called Pingshu (píng shū 评书); the same style in the South is called Pinghua (píng huà 评话).

The most important form of joke-telling is Xiang sheng (xiàng sheng 相声), or crosstalk, the comic dialogue of Northern China, which in the South is called Huaji (huá jī 滑稽), comic words in Chinese.

Story-singing seems to have the largest sub-group. Each style has a strong local flavor in either its accent or music.
(Source: http://www.easy-mandarin.cn)