Xu Yulan (born Wang Yulan, December 27, 1921 – April 19, 2017) was a

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 ...

singer-actress who plays '' Sheng'' roles (all male characters).

Early life

Xu Yulan was born in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province (the location of present-day Xindeng township,

Fuyang District () is one of ten urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, East China. Fuyang is located in the northwest of Zhejiang on the Fuchun River, a tributary of the Qiantang River. The city is the bi ...

). She trained in traditional Chinese opera, which included training in acrobatics and martial arts, at Dong'an Theatre School.He Li and Shirley Wei Chang, "Xu Yulan" in Lily Xiao Hong Lee, ed.
''Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: v. 2: Twentieth Century''
(Routledge 2016): 658.

Career

Xu Yulan often played male roles in all-female Yue opera productions, and the "Xu style" of playing these ''xiaosheng'' (young male) roles is named for her. She co-starred with

Wang Wenjuan Wang Wenjuan (; 19 December 1926 – 6 August 2021) was a noted performer in Yue opera. She was well known for playing the title role Lin Daiyu in the 1962 film of ''Dream of the Red Chamber'', an adaptation of a work by Cao Xueqin. Biog ...

for many years beginning in 1948, and commissioned works from other composers. In 1949 she was one of the performers required to take classes and pursue research on folk opera for the Shanghai government. In 1952 she won first prize in the first Chinese folk opera festival organized under the new Ministry of Culture. In 1953 she performed opera for Chinese and Korean military audiences, for which she was awarded a medal by the Korean Workers' Party. For much of her life she was an instructor, consultant, and advisor to the Shanghai Yue Opera Academy, and performed with the Academy's opera company on overseas tours to East Germany, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and North Korea. Xu Yulan's performances were preserved on film, including in ''The Carp Fairy'' (1959) and ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...

'' (also known as ''A Dream of Red Mansions'') (1962, directed by Cen Fan), the latter enormously successful with Chinese audiences when it was shown in 1978. She also produced a television series of her career highlights. With the loosening of restrictions on artists in China, she formed the Red Mansions Opera Company, and was a popular guest at concerts in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. Late in life she was on the executive committee of the Chinese Dramatists' Association.

Personal life

Xu Yulan lived with her chaperone and personal assistant Zhao Naixue from 1946 until she married in 1954.Jin Jiang
"Women Playing Men: Same-Sex Relations in Republican Shanghai"
(Harvard-Yenching Working Paper Series 2011): 12–13.

References

External links

1962 film of Xu Yulan in ''Dream of the Red Chamber''
with discussion, at the University of Minnesota's ''Dream of the Red Chamber: Afterlives'' project. * {{authority control 1921 births 2017 deaths Yue opera actresses Musicians from Hangzhou Singers from Zhejiang Chinese film actresses Actresses from Hangzhou 20th-century Chinese actresses Male impersonators in Yue opera 20th-century Chinese women singers