Hu Heyan
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1947, a native of Wuhan, Hubei Province. She is a National First-Class Performer. In 1958 she was admitted to the Han Opera section of the Wuhan Opera School, taking the qingyi role, and after graduation she joined the Wuhan Han Opera Troupe. She inherited the sumptuous and gentle singing of the Chen school, attending to a use of the voice that conceals elegance within breadth and strength within softness, and formed a singing style that is ethereal, refined and free. Her leading roles in such famous Chen-school plays as Zhuang Yuan Mei (The Number One Scholar as Matchmaker), Yu Zhou Feng (The Universe Sword) and Qin Xianglian were warmly received, her leading roles in modern Han operas such as Hong Se Niang Zi Jun (The Red Detachment of Women) and Jiang Jie showed innovation and development, and the newly written historical drama Chuang Wang Qi (The Banner of the Dashing King) was made into an opera art film while the costume drama Hu Tan (The Fox's Investigation) was made into a television series.
Honors & Recognition
She is a representative bearer of Han Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1980 she became a disciple of Chen Bohua and the first-generation inheritor of Chen-school Han Opera art. In 1991 she received the Eighth China Drama Plum Blossom Award. She has long been engaged in the transmission of Han Opera art and has trained a number of qingyi performers of Han Opera.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Hanju Opera Ⅳ-30
Profile
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。