Yan Huizhu

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Yan Huizhu was a Chinese opera singer of Mongolian descent, born in 1919. She performed in two genres of Chinese musical theatre: jingju, Peking opera, and kunqu. Her father, Yan Jupeng, was himself a jingju actor and had developed a singing style of his own. He tried to keep her from the demanding profession, but she learned songs and roles while he was on tour. In 1937 she joined a theatre company under the name Huizhu.

Music and breakthrough

The famous master Mei Lanfang took her under his wing when he was not allowed to perform during the Japanese occupation of Beijing. Because of that bond she was nicknamed Little Mei Lanfang. In February 1946 she had a great success with the opera Shengsi hen in Beijing, and from then on she was called the Queen of Peking Opera. After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 she continued to perform. In 1957 she became deputy director of the School of Traditional Opera in Shanghai, where she taught the Mei style, and she toured Europe. With Yu Zhenfei she often performed an adapted version of Qiangtou mashang. In 1960 they married.

Influence

Peking opera combines singing, gesture, acrobatics and a sharp, high use of the voice with percussion and strings. Yan Huizhu was one of the women who gave that art a new face in the twentieth century. Her life ended tragically: during the Cultural Revolution she was attacked and denounced by the Red Guards, and on the night of 10 September 1966 she took her own life.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2005中国戏曲名家名戏 京剧：芦花河（选场） 四郎探母（唱段） 太真外传（唱段）