Shang Changrong

b. 15 July 1940, Beijing

Xiqu (sung drama/opera) actor

Shang Changrong is the most famous currently active performer of the jing or painted-face Xiqu role type in Jingju (Peking opera) (see Xiqu role types).The son of Shang Xiaoyun, one of the ‘Four Great Dan [female role type]’ Jingju performers of the twentieth century, Shang Changrong trained in Jingju performance at home, and was on stage by age five. In 1950 he entered the school attached to his father’s troupe, where he studied painted-face performance and gained extensive stage experience.

In 1960 Shang became the personal disciple of the master painted-face performer Hou Xirui; Shang is the principal inheritor of Hou’s ‘performance style’ (liupai), which is the foundation of his own creative work.

Shang was one of the original actors in the model revolutionary modern Jingju, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Zhi qu wei Hushan). His first major original work after the Cultural Revolution was in the newly written historical play Zhang Fei Honours Virtue (Zhang Fei jingxian), which won numerous awards and was made into a popular television film. One of his most famous and influential achievements is the celebrated Jingju play Gao Gao and Yang Xiu (Cao Cao yü Yang Xiu, 1988). Shang discovered the script, convinced the Shanghai Jingju Company (Shanghai jingjuyuan) to produce it, and created what is widely recognized as one of the all-time finest characterizations of the historical figure Cao Cao. His most recent major work is in the newly written historical play A Great Occasion in the Zhen Guan Years (Zhen Guan shengshi), which received major national prizes in 2000 and 2001 and, like Cao Cao and Yang Xiu, has toured widely in and outside of mainland China. Shang has received innumerable national honours, including multiple Plum Blossom Awards (Meihua jiang). His work has already been recognized by many authorities as constituting its own, original ‘performance style’.

ELIZABETH WICHMANN-WALCZAK