Yan Fengying

essential information

Life of the characters

Young people learn art

As her father Yan Siming and mother divorced, Yan Fengying returned to luojialing, where her grandparents lived, when she was four or five years old, and learned to sing many local folk songs. Because of the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, her father Yan Siming also went back to his hometown and taught her to sing Peking Opera when he was idle, which brought her into contact with the art of drama. When she was in her teens, Yan Yungao, a member of her family who once took part in a troupe, brought Huangmei Opera back to luojialing. While he was making a living, he accepted apprentices to teach arts. Thus, Yan Fengying got married with Huangmei Opera. She began to learn opera secretly, and then worshipped Yan Yungao as her teacher and became his female disciple. She also learned the single fold of traditional opera, such as "sending fragrant tea" and "spring fragrance making learning". From the age of four or five to fifteen, Yan Fengying has gone through the preparation period of setting foot on the road of performing art of Huangmei Opera.

Bumpy Art

In the spring of 1945, Yan Fengying performed for the first time in Liantan ancestral hall in Tongcheng. Her performance is Erlong mountain. Although she plays an unimportant role in the play, she Suzhen's maid, it is the starting point of her Huangmei opera stage performance. For this reason, she broke the clan rules and nearly drowned. However, she did not give up her first step. She continued to take part in the Huangmei Opera class, and finally left her family, from Tongcheng to Huaining, Zongyang and other counties, to Anqing, the provincial capital at that time. according to relevant records, she fled Nanjing at the end of 1947 to study Jingkun art and song and dance. People who didn't know about it said that she was missing at this time. As a matter of fact, she was escorted by her grandfather on her way to avoid Qiupu and sang Huangmei Opera on both sides of Qiupu River and Yinhui town for three months. During Yan Fengying's short career in Huangmei Opera, her story of avoiding Qiupu and singing Huangmei Opera is little known. In October 1947, Yan Fengying, 17 years old, attracted people on both sides of Qiupu with her sparrow like singing voice and light dancing posture, and was deeply loved by aunts and uncles. Yan Fengying came to Qiupu with her Master Cheng Jishan (yantangren from Guichi). At that time, GUI Yuee and GUI Tianci from Tongling, song Zaichun and Hong Lianzi from Yinhui and other old artists took part in the opera. It is said that Yan Fengying came on a holiday while singing farewell to Huaiyin. After being forgiven by the majority of Qiupu audience, she deeply regretted that she did not see Yan Fengying's wonderful performance of "farewell to heaven". Finally, he sang in the big room of Su's pawnshop in Yinhui old street. It is said that at that time, the ticket price was only three cents (old money). Yan Fengying sang for three months on both sides of Qiupu river. She was not only good at art, but also good at people. When she was singing in Qiupu, she also married the landlord. Han Faxiang, an octogenarian who is still alive, recalls that Yan Fengying was singing in Yinhui when he got married. On the night of her wedding, Yan Fengying and her local little sisters had a new house together. Her uncles and aunts called her "Xiao Yan" or "Hong Liu" affectionately. She promised to be as close as her own daughter. with the continuous enrichment of stage practice, Yan Fengying's performance art level has been improved rapidly. She had a good talent for singing and was open-minded to learn from her predecessors. She recalled: "when I came to Anqing, I wanted to perform well, so I studied hard. At that time, learning to perform mainly depended on watching and watching the old people's every move on the stage. I kept it in mind bit by bit, and then moved it onto the stage according to the gourd painting ladle. Because I'm a woman, I have to be more delicate in acting in Dan opera. It's like that. The audience saw it very interesting and said that Yan Fengying's "little work" was very good It is with this learning spirit that Yan Fengying stands out in the performing arts. However, in the dark society ruled by the Kuomintang reactionaries, Yan Fengying, a prominent artist in art, was not helped but devastated. She was forced to leave her beloved stage again and again, and was exiled and homeless.

A great master

In 1946, Yan Fengying came to Anqing city and first performed in Qunle theater. She made a sensation in Anqing with two operas, xiaocidian and Youchun. In 1948, the society was in turmoil. Yan Fengying, who was less than 20 years old, was exiled to Shanghai and moved to Nanjing on the eve of liberation. Forced to make a living, Yan Fengying changed her name to Yan Daifeng. She first danced in the dance hall, and then met Gan Luzhi, the third son of Gan Gong in the Jingkun family. She learned to sing the Kunqu Opera "you Yuan Jing Meng" and so on. Yan Fengying's hard pursuit of Jingkun art laid a good foundation for her superb acting skills in Huangmei Opera. In 1951, Yan Fengying returned to Anqing stage and continued to perform in "Qunle theater" (later renamed "Shengli theater"). Party cadres and new writers and artists helped her to reform opera and people, making her "contact with new literary and artistic ideas". In addition to performing traditional plays, she also cooperated with land reform, anti hegemony, resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, and publicizing marriage law. In the summer of 1952, she took part in the summer artist training class in Anhui Province and studied the instructions on the reform of traditional Chinese opera issued by the Central People's government. Her thoughts changed even more. "The old society regarded me as grass and the new society regarded me as treasure.". Her bitter experience before liberation made her full of feelings for the Communist Party and new China, which also stimulated her long-standing enthusiasm for artistic creation. In the same year, she was invited to perform in Shanghai. Her role in the play is sincere, distinctive, beautiful and moving. Her performance has been a great success. Therefore, Yan Fengying is praised as a highly accomplished artist by the Shanghai audience. Yan Fengying was transferred to Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe in 1953. Yan Fengying's East China Opera performance in 1954 was an important step towards her brilliant career. This performance directly laid the foundation for the shooting of the 1955 film Tianxianpei. With the broadcast of the film, Huangmei Opera has changed from a local opera in Anhui Province to a national opera. from 1953 to 1965, her performance art level also kept leaping, which not only formed her own style, but also represented the highest level of Huangmei opera performance art at that time, and had an important impact on the formation of drama style. In the past 13 years, Yan Fengying has performed more than 50 plays, especially the artistic images of seven fairies and Feng Suzhen in Tianxianpei and nvfuma, which have become her representative works and treasures in Huangmei Opera. Yan Fengying's singing style is beautiful, sweet, euphemistic and full-bodied. She absorbs the advantages of Beijing opera, Yue opera, Pingju opera, Pingtan opera and folk songs, and integrates them into her own family. She is known as "Yan school" and is widely spread. In her short artistic life, Yan Fengying has starred in more than 20 big plays and nearly 30 small plays. In addition, she has also made three films. She has performed with Wang Shaofang for many times for the party and state leaders Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and so on. She is praised as "Mei Lanfang in Huangmei Opera" by Tian Han and "a great master of Huangmei Opera" by the Chinese people.

Falling emotion

A fruitless emotion

Yan Fengying's boyfriend is Wang Zhaoqian, the business backbone of Anqing military region. Wang Zhaoqian lives in his uncle's house. His aunt is German and his uncle has money. Wang Zhaoqian and Yan Fengying learned social dance together. Wang Zhaoqian is a very talented person. When he was in the Dabie Mountains in 1947, he began to collect folk music and Huangmei tune. In September 1949, "Wang GUI and Li Xiangxiang" was adapted for Huangmei Opera, which was the first exploration of the reform of Huangmei Opera. He is the author of Huangmei opera music and began to study Nuo opera in 1950s. In 1953, Yan Fengying went to Nanjing with Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe to perform "beating pig grass". She brought a gift and wanted to go to Gan's home to express her gratitude. Wang Zhaoqian won't let her go, but Yan Fengying insists on going. "Wang Zhaoqian followed quietly and met Gan Luzhi. Yan Fengying was very generous and introduced them to each other. But Wang Zhaoqian ignored him. Gan Luzhi shook hands with him, and he didn't either. When Yan Fengying introduced Gan Luzhi, she said, "this is my friend in the past, and then she pointed to Wang Zhaoqian and said," this is my lover now. ". It's very clear. However, Wang Zhaoqian, who was very angry, slapped her in the face on the spot. " Speaking of Yan Fengying's experience, Wu Qiong is very emotional. Yan Fengying, with a strong personality, can't bear to be humiliated and resolutely breaks up with Wang Zhaoqian. After that, they broke up. In the early 1950s, Yan Fengying gave birth to her first son, Wang Xiaoya. Before Xiao Ya was born, Yan Fengying asked for a letter to Wang Zhaoqian, saying that the baby was going to be born, but Wang Zhaoqian didn't go. Yan Fengying's elder martial sister, Zhang Ping, who plays the role of "six elder sisters" in the Huangmei Opera Tianxianpei, commented that Yan Fengying's character is stubborn. At that time, Yan Fengying was pregnant. In the early 1950s, unmarried children had to bear huge social pressure, but Yan didn't care.

A marriage that ended in nothing

When Yan Fengying was singing in Nanjing dance hall for a living, she got to know Gan Luzhi, the third young master of the famous "Gan family courtyard" in Nanjing at that time. The Gan family in Nanjing has lived in nanzhuting hall for more than 100 years. From the beginning of the Anti Japanese War to the liberation, Mei Lanfang and many other Liyuan Yinghua were guests of GaN gongsan. Yan Fengying once lived in the Gan family and studied the art of "Beijing and Kunming". Ganluzhi, the third son of the Gan family, not only can both Lao Sheng and Xiao Sheng sing, but also has a good command of Jinghu. In the spring of 1950, he and several famous people launched a Beijing Opera teahouse called "You Yi Ji", and met Yan Fengying, who was living in Nanjing. Yan Fengying played in Yu Bei Ting and other dramas in the activity of "You Yi Ji". She once cooperated with Gan Luzhi in Meilong town and played Li Fengjie, which was well received. In 1951, Yan Fengying returned to Anqing. Gan Luzhi bought her clothes and supported her to return to Huangmei Opera. In the summer of 1953, Yan Fengying accompanied Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe to Nanjing, where she lived

Chinese PinYin : Yan Feng Ying