Ji Qilin (born 27 May 1947) is a Chinese actor.

Biography

Ji Qilin was born in 1947 to two deployed soldiers on their way south during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. Because of the war, he grew up in his grandmother's house in

Liaocheng Liaocheng (), is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southeast, Dezhou to the northeast, Tai'an to the south, and the provinces of Hebei and Henan to the west. The Grand ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

until the age of 5, when he and his grandmother joined his parents 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 ...

. When he was 11, he was admitted to Beijing Chinese Opera School (北京戏曲学校). Two years later, his parents were relocated to

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, leaving Ji Qilin by himself in Beijing. At school, he trained to become a

Peking opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

'' wusheng'' performer under Hou Hailin (侯海林), a disciple of

Yang Xiaolou Yang may refer to: * Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy * Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902 * YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration pr ...

. In 1963, after eight years of dedicated practice, Ji Qilin received a perfect score for his graduation performance, the first in school history. Instead of becoming a star performer as everyone had predicted, Ji Qilin saw his dream dashed with the advent of 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 goal ...

, which banned all traditional Chinese operas. In 1968, Ji Qilin was " sent down" to work in a

salt mine Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustio ...

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

. After an attempt to star in

revolutionary opera In People's Republic of China (1949–), revolutionary operas or model operas (Simplified Chinese: ''yangban xi'', 样板戏) were a series of shows planned and engineered during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) by Jiang Qing, the wife of ...

s proved unsuccessful, he decided to become a

modern dancer Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

. At that time, his newlywed wife Zhang Bailing (张百灵) was working as a stage actress for the Kunming Military Region (昆明军区) in

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

, and Ji Qilin managed to join the army in Kunming to be with her. He was already 23 with no background in dancing. In order to take on non-

extra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * ''Extra!'', an American me ...

roles, Ji Qilin had to work much harder than everyone else: he woke up one hour earlier and practiced until late in the evening. His dedication paid off: he was given main roles in the

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

'' Red Detachment of Women''. Just then the Cultural Revolution ended, and in 1978, Ji Qilin made another career change: he returned to Beijing to enroll in the China National Opera & Drama Dance Theatre so that he could star in dance dramas (舞剧), which sought to combine traditional art forms with western-imported modern dance. Again, Ji Qilin worked extremely hard and came to be recognized as one of the best dancers in China. However, by his late 30s he was increasingly battling back injuries. At that time, his young son Ji Chenmu acted in some films. Encouraged by Zhang Bailing, Ji Chenmu changed his career yet again: he followed his son and became a film and television actor.

Filmography

Film

TV and film series

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ji, Qilin 1947 births 20th-century Chinese male actors 21st-century Chinese male actors Chinese male film actors Chinese male television actors Living people Chinese male stage actors Male actors from Beijing