Xin Fengxia (; 1927 – 12 April 1998) was a Chinese

pingju Pingju or Ping opera () is a form of Chinese opera from northern China. History Pingju originated in Tangshan, Hebei, near the city of Tianjin.. Among all China's regional operas, it was the most famous in the Republican period for its passiona ...

opera performer, known as the "Queen of Pingju". She was also a film actress, writer, and painter. She starred in the highly popular films ''Liu Qiao'er'' (1956) and ''Flowers as Matchmakers'' (1964), both adapted from her operas. Xin was married to Wu Zuguang, a prominent playwright and an outspoken critic of government policies. When Wu was denounced as a "rightist" in

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) ...

Anti-Rightist Campaign The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged "Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was l ...

, Xin refused to divorce him and was herself denounced as a result. She was later severely persecuted 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 goal ...

, becoming disabled after a beating and was later paralyzed due to a stroke. No longer able to perform, she dedicated the remainder of her life to teaching, writing, and painting. She studied painting with her godfather

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...

, a master of Chinese painting, and studied writing with her husband. She published a two-million-word memoir, which has been translated into English and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
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Early life and career

Xin Fengxia was born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, China. When she was a toddler she was sold by

human smugglers People smuggling (also called human smuggling), under U.S. law, is "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, ei ...

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 ...

in northern China, and was given the name Yang Shumin (). She was trained as an opera performer from a young age. At that time, the theatrical world in China was controlled by gangsters. Actors, even renowned performers, had little personal freedom. She originally trained for

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 ...

under her "older sister" Yang Jinxiang, but later changed to pingju. She toured extensively, and by the 1940s, her fame had rivalled well known female stars such as Liu Cuixia,

Bai Yushuang Li Guizhen pinyin, p ''Lǐ Guìzhēn''; 1907–1942), better known by her stage name Bai Yushuang ''Yùshuāng'', Jade Frost"), was a Chinese people, Chinese Pingju, Ping Opera Chinese opera, singer and Cinema of China, actress. She was one ...

, and Fu Ronghua. Xinfengxia 1956

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xin moved to Beijing. Her first performance, in the modern pingju ''Little Erhei's Marriage'', was well liked and attracted the attention of the original novelist

Zhao Shuli Zhao Shuli (; 1906–1970) was a novelist and a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. He died in 1970, following persecutions during the Cultural Revolution. Biography Born in 1906 in Qinshui County, Shanxi Province, he was originally ca ...

and the well known writer

Lao She Shu Qingchun (3 February 189924 August 1966), known by his pen name Lao She, was a Chinese novelist and dramatist. He was one of the most significant figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, and is best known for his novel ''Rickshaw Boy'' a ...

. Her next performance, in ''Liu Qiao'er'', was even more successful, making her a household name in China. In the opera ''Flowers as Matchmakers'' (''Hua Wei Mei''), she transformed the traditional melancholy tunes of pingju into joyous ones, and enriched the pingju repertoire by creating many new melodies. It is now considered a classic of the Xin style pingju. ''Liu Qiao'er'' was made into a film in 1956, which was followed by ''Flowers as Matchmakers'' in 1964. Both starred Xin and were extremely popular. Premier

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, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...

and his wife

Deng Yingchao Deng Yingchao (; 4 February 1904 – 11 July 1992) was the Chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and the wife of the first Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai. E ...

were both her fans. Zhou once said: "I can live without tea for three days, but not without watching Xin Fengxia."

Marriage and persecution

In 1951, Lao She introduced Xin Fengxia to the famous playwright Wu Zuguang. Like many intellectuals at the time, Wu held high hopes for the new People's Republic and returned to China from

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

. Xin, who had acted in one of Wu's plays, admired his talent. They married that year, despite the fact that they were from differing socioeconomic backgrounds; she had no formal education and was nearly illiterate, while he was from a prominent family of scholars. Wu helped her to study reading, writing, and

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

. She also studied painting with

, one of the most celebrated masters of

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...

, who took her as his goddaughter. Xin Fengxia and Wu Zuguang

Wu Zuguang, an outspoken critic of government cultural policies, was denounced in 1957 as a "rightist" in

, and was sent to the Great Northern Wilderness in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

to be " reformed through labour." Xin was pressured to divorce her husband, but refused. Citing a legendary love story from one of her operas, she said "Wang Baochuan waited 18 years for Xue Pinggui, and I will wait 28 years for Wu Zuguang." As a result, she was herself labeled a rightist and went through

struggle session Denunciation rallies, also called struggle sessions, were violent public spectacles in Maoist China where people accused of being "class enemies" were publicly humiliated, accused, beaten and tortured by people with whom they were close. Usually ...

s. Wu returned to Beijing after three years of hard labour, but six years later, China fell into the even greater turmoil of the

, which began in 1966. Xin Fengxia and Wu Zuguang were both denounced at the beginning of the period. She was severely beaten by a junior actor of the China Pingju Institute; her left knee was broken and she never fully recovered from the injury. The couple's friend Lao She drowned himself after being similarly tortured. After her beating Xin served seven years of forced labour. In December 1975, she became paralyzed after suffering a stroke. Wu took care of her for the rest of her life.

Post-Cultural Revolution

After the Cultural Revolution, Xin Fengxia was politically rehabilitated in 1979, but was unable to return to the stage because of her disability. Her performance in ''Flowers as Matchmakers'' in 1964 proved to be her last. She devoted her energy to writing, painting, and training the younger generation of pingju performers. In 1997, she published her two-million-word memoir, which has been translated into English and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Ye Shengtao Ye Shengtao (28 October 1894 – 16 February 1988) was a Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician. He was a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (), the first literature association during the May Fourth Movement ...

, the renowned writer and publisher, greatly encouraged her to write. He composed two poems praising her courage and talent. Her paintings, which were decorated with her husband's calligraphy, were also popular, and an exhibition of them was held at the China Military Museum in 1994. She was elected as a member of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

. In April 1998, while visiting

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

, her husband's hometown, she suffered a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

. She was sent to Changzhou No. 1 People's Hospital, where she died after a week, on 12 April 1998.

Legacy

Xin Fengxia and Wu Zuguang had three children. Their son, Wu Huan, is also a writer, painter, and calligrapher. After the deaths of Xin in 1998 and of Wu Zuguang in 2003, he organized the exhibition "A Hundred Years of the Wu Family" at the Poly Art Museum in Beijing. It was also shown in France, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The "Xin" style of pingju pioneered by Xin Fengxia has become one of the most important styles of the opera. In 2014, the China Pingju Institute created a new opera entitled ''Xin Fengxia'' to commemorate her life, with focuses on her reformation of the opera, and the love story of Xin and Wu. It is written by Huang Weiruo (), and directed by Guo Xiaonan ().

Marriage and persecution

Post-Cultural Revolution

Legacy

References

Further reading