Yao Cheng
Lineage & School of Heritage
She studied under Gu Jiasheng, specialized in the dan (female) role and also performed xiaosheng (young male) roles.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
A national first-class actor. As the founder of the Yao school of Xiju Opera art she was acclaimed as the "Queen of Xiju Opera". Her diction was clear and precise, her voice sweet, soft and lovely, her melodic phrasing ornate and elegant, and her acting profound and finely detailed. Her principal repertoire includes An Tang Ren Mu (A Mother Recognized in the Convent), Ba Lan Hua (Pulling Up the Orchid), Hong Se De Zhong Zi (Red Seeds), Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) and Shuang Zhu Feng (A Pair of Pearl Phoenixes). In 1954 she went to Beijing to star in Luo Han Qian (Coins of the Arhat), the first occasion on which Xiju Opera was performed in the capital. She performed many times for foreign heads of state and was received by them. Several of her disciples have become national first-class actors or leading performers of their troupes.
Honors & Recognition
Female, Han nationality, born in November 1926 and deceased in December 2019, a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province. A national representative bearer of Xiju Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1954 she took part in the First East China Regional Festival of Opera Observation and Performance, starring in Zou Shang Xin Lu (Taking the New Road) as Li Ruizhen and winning a first prize for acting. In 1957 she took part in the First Jiangsu Provincial Festival of Opera Observation and Performance and won a first prize for performance.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Xiju Opera Ⅳ-103
- Xiju Opera Ⅳ-103
- Xiju Opera Ⅳ-103
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。