Yan Su (; 9 May 1930 – 12 February 2016) was a Chinese playwright and lyricist who served as vice-president of

China Theatre Association The China Theatre Association is a subordinate of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC). Founded on July 24, 1949, the organisation was initially named the China National Theatre Workers Association. In 1953, it was renamed the ...

. He held the civilian rank equivalent to general in the PLA Air Force Political Department Song and Dance Troupe. He was a National Class-A Screenwriter. He was a member of

China Writers Association China Writers Association or Chinese Writers Association (CWA, ) is a subordinate people's organization of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC). Founded in July 1949, the organization was initially named the China National Lite ...

and China Music Copyright Association. He was a visiting professor at .

Biography

Yan Su was born Yan Zhiyang () in

Baoding Baoding (), formerly known as Baozhou and Qingyuan, is a prefecture-level city in central Hebei province, approximately southwest of Beijing. As of the 2010 census, Baoding City had 11,194,382 inhabitants out of which 2,176,857 lived in the b ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

, on May 9, 1930. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

, he, then 10 years old, moved to

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

with his family. He attended

Chongqing Nankai Secondary School Chongqing Nankai Middle School () is a senior high school in Chongqing, China. It is located in Chenjiawan, Shapingba District. In a 2016 ranking of Chinese high schools that send students to study in American universities, Chongqing Nankai Mid ...

and graduated from

Chongqing University Chongqing University (CQU; , colloquially abbreviated as ChóngDà) is a public research university located in Chongqing, China. It is a National Key University directly funded by the central government of China as part of the Double First Class ...

, majoring in business administration. He joined the

Communist Youth League The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...

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 main ...

and joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

in 1953. In 1950, he was transferred to Southwest Military Region Youth Song and Dance Troupe as an actor. He once performed in the front of

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

. In 1955 he was transferred again to PLA Air Force Political Department Song and Dance Troupe. He first rose to prominence in 1964 for playing in the opera ''Sister Jiang'', earned critical acclaim, and he was personally interviewed by Chairman

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, 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 List of national founde ...

. But two years later, in 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 ...

, the song was labeled as "poisonous weed" and he was cast as a

rightist Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

. In 1982, ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popul ...

'' was broadcast on

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly ...

, the series reached number one in the ratings when it aired in China. The opening theme, ''Dare to Ask Where is the Road'', was written by Yan Su. In 1986 he joined the

. In 2015, he was elected "moved China" Person of the Year 2015. On October 27, 2015, a military vocalist Yu Wenhua () made up a rumor on Sinaweibo - "Teacher Yan Su died of illness at PLA Air Force General Hospital in Beijing". Later, Yan's wife Li Wenhui said in an interview that her husband is alive and they will investigate the legal responsibility of the rumormonger. "My father has been into a deep coma after acute

cerebral infarction A cerebral infarction is the pathologic process that results in an area of necrotic tissue in the brain (cerebral infarct). It is caused by disrupted blood supply ( ischemia) and restricted oxygen supply ( hypoxia), most commonly due to thromboemb ...

for more than twenty days, at present, his situation is stable, it's fair to say that he had the potential to wake up, but risk is often with opportunities, thank you for asking." Yan Yu, son of Yan Su, said in response to questions from journalists. On February 12, 2016, Yan Su died at the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, in Beijing. At the time of his death, he was set to judge a

talent show and art advisor of the

CCTV New Year's Gala The ''CCTV New Year's Gala'', also known as the ''Spring Festival Gala'', and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as ''Chunwan'', is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). It is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese Ne ...

. On January 7, 2018, unable to reach an agreement on the proportion of the income distribution of Yan Su's music copyright, Yan's wife and daughter sued his son to the court for property analysis of the music copyright enjoyed by the heir, ordering his wife to enjoy two-thirds and his daughter to enjoy one-sixth.

Personal life

Yan Su began dating Li Wenhui () in 1959, they married in 1961, the couple have a son, Yan Yu (), and two grandsons.

Works

Important works in lyrics

* ''Dare to Ask Where is the Road'' () * ''Song Face Painting of Beijing Opera'' () * ''Beijing Is the Hometown'' () * ''Folk Song Beijing Life Style Life Used to Be'' () * ''Smoke and Mirrors'' () * ''My Love to the Blue Sky of Motherland'' () * ''Going To Sichuan'' () * ''Oriental Pearl Tower'' () * ''Great Wall Great'' () * ''I Am the Sky'' () * ''Guilin is My Home'' () * ''Face Changing'' () * ''Everything Goes Well'' () * ''Mission'' () * ''Celebrating the New Year in the Army'' ()

Opera

* ''Sister Jiang'' () * ''Daughter of the Party'' () * ''Special District Rondo'' () * ''Memories of Mother'' () * ''Three Chrysanthemum of Jiaodong'' () * ''Fourth Sister Liu'' ()

Beijing opera

* ''Red Rock'' () * '' The Red Detachment of Women'' () * ''May There Be Surplus Year After Year'' () * ''Armed Working Team Behind Enemy Lines'' () * ''Red Light'' ()

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Su 1930 births 2016 deaths Writers from Baoding Chongqing Nankai Secondary School alumni Chongqing University alumni Musicians from Baoding Mandopop musicians Chinese lyricists Chinese dramatists and playwrights People of the Republic of China Educators from Hebei Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery