Feng Guopei
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1914 in Bengbu, Anhui. Taught from childhood by his second and third uncles, Feng Guopei learned the flower-drum lantern and played the female role of lanhua (orchid); by sixteen he was widely famed under the stage name Xiao Jinlian (Little Golden Lotus). His lanhua was handsome and charming, dignified and graceful, lively and refined, and full of tender feeling; his dance movements were expansive, free and easy, nimble and flowing. A series of dance movements he created, among them the leaning tower, the pheasant slip, the great turn and the wild goose alighting on the sand, are marked by ardour, boldness and strong expressiveness. He also advocated abandoning the old custom of men playing women's roles in the flower-drum lantern and promoted the performance of lanhua by actresses. With a performing art at once consummate, distinctive and a school of its own, and with a talent for apt borrowing and skilful synthesis, Feng Guopei choreographed and created a series of outstanding dance works, raising the art of the flower-drum lantern to a new stage. His representative works include the flower-drum lantern song-and-dance dramas Mo Hua Jiao (Touching the Bridal Sedan) and Wan Deng Ren De Hun Li (The Lantern Player's Wedding), and the flower-drum lantern dances Da Hua Chang (The Great Flower Field), Xiao Hua Chang (The Small Flower Field), Xin You Chun (New Spring Outing) and Pu Hu Die (Catching Butterflies).
Honors & Recognition
National representative bearer of Flower Drum Lantern (Bengbu Flower Drum Lantern), a second-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
Profile
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