Fan Ruijuan (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 范瑞娟;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: ''Fàn Ruìjuān''; 1924–2017) was a prominent Chinese opera singer. She was one of the stars of the

Yue Opera Yue opera, also known as Shaoxing opera, is the Chinese opera genre. Only Peking opera is more popular nationwide. Originating in Shengzhou, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province in 1906, Yue opera features actresses in male roles as well as femininity ...

which features actresses in male roles. She is remembered in particular for her many performances of Liang Shanbo in ''The Sad Story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai'', an opera based on the folk tale

Butterfly Lovers The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo () and Zhu Yingtai (), whose names form the title of the story. The title is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (). The story was selected as one o ...

, which she also played in the United States in 1989. In 1990, she toured widely in Europe. During a stage career lasting 50 years, she played over a hundred different roles, last performing in 1993 in a television series. She held various high-level official appointments including director of the Chinese Dramatists Association.

Biography

Born on 6 January 1924 in Huangze, Sheng Country in central

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, Fu Ruijan began studying opera under Huang Bingwen at the Longfeng Stage School from the spring of 1935. Principally playing the parts of young males, she toured with the Longfeng troupe to

Shaoxing Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

and

Zhuji Zhuji () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing, in north-central Zhejiang province, China, located about south of Hangzhou. It has with a population of 1,218,072 inhabitants at the 2020 census e ...

. By 1938, she was performing in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

with the Yuesheng Wutai Troupe. She performed leading roles in the 1940s, joining the Siji Chun Troupe for a few months in late 1944, where she collaborated with Fu Quanxiang. From mid-1944, she worked with the dancer Yuan Xuefen and the musician Zhou Baocai, creating the xianxia qiang style for the deathbed scene in ''Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai''. She is remembered for performing in ''Xiang Lin's Wife'', first on stage in May 1946 and in the 1948 film where she played the males roles of Young Master Niu and Xiang Lin. For taking part in the benefit performance in ''Love for Mountains and Rivers'' (1948), Fan Ruijuan is remembered as one of the "ten sisters of yueju". At the request of the dramatist

Tian Han Tian Han ( zh, 田汉; 12 March 1898 – 10 December 1968), formerly romanized as T'ien Han, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the ...

, in 1950 she and her troupe performed ''Liang Shanbo'' and ''New Year's Sacrifice'' in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

for high-level officials including

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

and Zhou Yang. In 1953, ''Liang Shanbo'' was released as a colour film starring Fan Ruijuan and Yuan Xuefen. In the mid-1950s, Fan Ruijuan travelled to Europe, the Soviet Union before returning the Shanghai to work with the Shanghai Yueju Theatre. It is not known how she fared during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

but she went on to perform in ''Song of the Loyal Souls'', ''Southeastern Flight of the Peacock'' and '' The Story of Liwa''. In 1988, she performed in ''Liang Shambo'' and ''The Story of Liwa'' in the United States. In early 1990, together with Lu Ruiying and Zhang Guifeng, she performed across western Europe in ''The Magic Needle''. Fan Ruijuan died in Shanghai on 17 February 2017, aged 93. In accordance with her wishes, there was no memorial service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fan, Ruijuan 1924 births 2017 deaths People from Shengzhou Actresses from Shaoxing Singers from Zhejiang Male impersonators in Yue opera Yue opera actresses 20th-century Chinese actresses 20th-century Chinese women singers