Zhao Yanxia

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Zhao Yanxia (Chinese: 赵燕侠; March 1, 1928 – March 19, 2025) was a Chinese opera singer, known for her performances with the National Peking Opera Company.

Life and career

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Zhao Yanxia was born in 1928 in Shenjiatai town, within the Chinese city of Linghai.[1][2][3]

Under the direction of her father, Zhao Xiaolou, who was a famous actor, Zhao Yanxia began learning Beijing opera at age 8.[4] Her grandfather and eight of her aunts were also Peking opera performers.[1] She began training for her own opera career at age 7 or 8, in 1935, and began performing in lead roles around age 16.[1][2][5][3]

In the 1950s, Zhao was targeted with criticism of her allegedly "erotic" performances.[6][7] Then, alongside other actors, she was not allowed to perform from 1966 to 1977 due to China's Cultural Revolution.[1] During that period, she spent five years working on a reform farm, planting wheat.[1][8]

However, by the 1980s, she was back onstage and had become "China's leading female opera star," according to The New York Times.[1] She performed in China and abroad with the first troupe of the National Peking Opera Company.[1][8] In 1980, she led a three-month tour to 10 cities in the United States from late August to early November alongside director Zhang Menggeng.[4]

In the early 1980s, Zhao took a pioneering role in reforming China's theatrical management system. In March 1981, she established a restructured opera troupe of 71 members from the original 170-member First Troupe of the Beijing Opera Theatre of Beijing. This new system, sometimes called a "production responsibility system," moved away from the fixed salary model where performers were paid regardless of how often they performed. Her reformed troupe gave 340 performances across China in a 16-month period, far more than was typical under the previous system.[4] As an actress, she portrayed a wide variety of roles, some of which she originated.[2][9][10]

Zhao retired from the stage in 1996.[2] She died in Beijing on March 19, 2025, at the age of 97.[2][3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Butterfield, Fox (1980-08-04). "Peking Opera Is Rehearsing For U.S. Debut at Met Aug. 12". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Renowned Peking opera artist Zhao Yanxia dies at 97". China.org.cn. 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  3. ^ a b c "著名京剧表演艺术家赵燕侠逝世，曾在《沙家浜》中饰演阿庆嫂". Sohu (in Chinese). 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  4. ^ a b c Yokoyama, Giichi (April 4, 1983). "Good-Bye to the 'Big Public Pot'" (PDF). Beijing Review. 26 (14): 25–28 – via en-us.
  5. ^ Dyer, Richard (1980-10-23). "Subtle Excess at the Opera". The Boston Globe.
  6. ^ Liu, Siyuan (2009). "Theatre Reform as Censorship: Censoring Traditional Theatre in China in the Early 1950s". Theatre Journal. 61 (3): 387–406. ISSN 0192-2882.
  7. ^ Feng, Wei (June 2023). "Transforming Tradition: The Reform of Chinese Theater In The 1950s and Early 1960s by Siyuan Liu (review)". Theatre Journal. 75 (2): 247–248. doi:10.1353/tj.2023.a908747. ISSN 1086-332X – via Proquest.
  8. ^ a b Clarke, Gerald (1980-08-25). "Show Business: China's Whirling Kaleidoscope". TIME. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  9. ^ "The Muzak of the Chinese Holocaust — Azalea Mountain on the Party's birthday, 1 July 2023". The Wairarapa Academy for New Sinology. 2023-07-05. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  10. ^ Huang, Qinghuan (Fall 2017). "Zhang Huoding: A Popular Jingju Star with Young Chinese". Asian Theatre Journal. 34 (2) – via Proquest.