Zhu Shihui

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhu Shihui, Male, Unspecified, from Jingjuyuan, Hubei, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Peking Opera (Ⅳ-28). The tradition is documented in Jingjuyuan, Hubei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Peking Opera in Jingjuyuan, Hubei: Peking opera centres on Wuhan in Hubei. After Peking opera came south and swept Wuhan at the end of the nineteenth century, Wuhan long remained one of its major centres; the Zhongnan Peking Opera Work Troupe founded in 1950 was later renamed the Wuhan Peking Opera Troupe, and bodies such as the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre have carried on the tradition, Hubei Peking opera attending to the creation of newly written historical plays while transmitting the schools. Owing to its distinctive geographical position Hubei became a birthplace of “pihuang” and went on to pioneer the “pihuang ensemble” that is Han opera (Han xi), known in the Qing as “Handiao”, “Chudiao” and “Chuqu”. In long performance practice the Handiao characterised by xipi and erhuang merged with the Huidiao characterised by chuiqiang and banzi, as well as Kunqu, Qinqiang (bangzi tunes), northern quyi and folk melodies, and finally evolved into Peking opera. At the end of the nineteenth century Peking opera came south and swept Wuhan, which has since remained one of its major centres; in 1950 the Zhongnan Peking Opera Work Troupe was founded and later renamed the Wuhan Peking Opera Troupe.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1947, a native of Jing County, Anhui Province. He is a National First-Class Performer and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. At the age of twelve he was admitted to the Hubei Provincial Opera School, initially studying the laosheng role and later turning to the chou (clown) role. He studied under such masters as Zhang Shaozhuang, Chen Hefeng, Li Siguang and Ai Shiju, and became a disciple of the celebrated Peking Opera performing artist Sun Shengwu. His range of roles is broad and he can both act and sing well; primarily a chou performer yet not confined to that role type, his acting has both the spirit of the chou role and the temperament of the sheng role, and the characters he portrays are all vividly true and refreshing, so that he is acclaimed as a leading contemporary Peking Opera clown in China. His representative productions, in which he starred, such as Xu Jiujing Sheng Guan Ji (Xu Jiujing's Promotion), Gao Yao Zhang (The Plaster Chapter) and Fa Men Zhong Sheng Xiang (The Multitude in the Buddhist Gate), are celebrated throughout the theatrical world. Within the documented technical tradition of Peking Opera in Jingjuyuan, Hubei: Peking opera belongs to the pihuang genres and has a history of more than two hundred years. Later Handiao artists brought Han opera's music, performance and repertory into the Hui troupes, creating the performance arrangement summed up as “the troupe is Hui, the tunes are Han”. In Peking opera's early formation such Hubei artists as Mi Yingxian, Yu Sansheng and Tan Xinpei all made important contributions to its development. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xu Jiujing Sheng Guan Ji (Xu Jiujing's Promotion)": A representative newly written historical play of the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre and one of the representative works of the inheritor Zhu Shihui. "Gao Yao Zhang (The Plaster Chapter)": One of the representative works of the Peking opera chou role, starred in by Zhu Shihui to much acclaim. "Famen Zhongsheng Xiang (Portraits of All Beings at Famen)": A newly written play of the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre and one of Zhu Shihui's representative works. "Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword)": A celebrated traditional Peking opera piece, the work with which the inheritor Yang Zhifang first came to notice.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Peking Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a winner of the second Plum Blossom of the China Drama Plum Blossom Award, the Wenhua Performance Award of the Ministry of Culture and the Leading Role Award of the Shanghai Magnolia Award for Dramatic Performance. In 1994 the Ministry of Culture conferred on him the title of Outstanding Expert of the Ministry of Culture. He has trained a number of outstanding performers of the chou role.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Zhu Shihui · National Representative Bearer Archive