Opera, the essence of China, was formed as early as the Song and Yuan dynasties. At the beginning, opera was performed on the same stage by men and women, but since the Manchus entered the customs and the Qing Dynasty ruled the country, it was believed that the atmosphere of performing on the same stage for men and women was not good, so it was banned by the order of Kangxi Grandpa, and female characters could only be performed by men and women. Until the appearance of this strange woman in the Republic of China period, it was considered to have completely opened the door to opera and broken the rules that men and women could not perform on the same stage for hundreds of years. Not only that, she charmed 5 presidents in her life, and Premier Zhou personally invited her out of the mountain and buried her in BabaoShan after her death. Who is she?
She is China's first modern drama actress: Liu Xikui.
Born in Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, Liu Xikui was enthusiastic about opera since he was a child, learned art at the age of 8, and was accepted as an apprentice by song Yongzhen, a famous actor at that time, because of his extraordinary talent. Perhaps Liu Xikui was born for opera, and in the process of learning opera, he not only learned quickly, but his voice was more beautiful. And she was most fortunate to catch up with a good period, the Republic of China period, everyone was already in a state of tired of listening to opera, and she was tired of watching the unchanged men and women's clothes. And the appearance of Liu Xikui made everyone's eyes shine.
Liu Xikui's posture is exquisite, his temperament is extraordinary, and he does not know how many warlords have been charmed by the graceful and colorful dynamics on the stage. For a time, Liu Xikui's reputation was popular all over the country, and he was even more known as: the male had Mei Lanfang, and the female had Liu Xikui. Being able to be on a par with Mei Lanfang shows how high the evaluation of Liu Xikui is. However, after a performance, Liu Xikui was treated irrationally by crazy fans, and suddenly rushed over to hug Liu Xikui into his arms, saying to her, "Finally see my heart and liver baby!" Later, this crazy fan was fined 50 oceans by the police, he still did not change his heart after he came out, just as the so-called peony flowers under the death of the ghost is also a wind, 50 pieces of ocean for a beauty into the arms, quite worth it!
As a popular Liu Xikui who has countless fans all over the country, the identity of fans is from civilians to managers to presidents, and there are all levels. The manager who loves her the most is Zhang Xun, who is so obsessed with driving all his aunts away that he only wants to stay with Liu Xikui alone, but Liu Xikui is not moved. The five presidents she was fascinated by were: Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang, Xu Shichang and Cao Kun. The 5 presidents tried to get her by all means, but Liu Xikui just didn't comply, she hated the greedy faces of those warlords, and finally forced her to die.
Liu Xikui was not unmoved. Mei Lanfang, who is the same name as her, the two have long been in love, whether on the stage or in life, the outside world calls them golden children. However, because Liu Xikui was remembered by too many warlords and Kuo Shao, Mei Lanfang, who was better with her, was also physically threatened. In the end, in order to save Mei Lanfang, Liu Xikui chose to cut off the love thread himself. She hopes that Mei Lanfang can carry forward Chinese opera, and she feels that Chinese opera is inseparable from Mei Lanfang. Perhaps fate can never make people's lives perfect, Liu Xikui is no exception, opera is the most important career in her life, but love is not love.
In order to dispel the pursuit of those warlords and Kuo Shao, Liu Xikui hastily married Cui Changzhou, and it was not until after she became a relative that she found out that the soldier who looked good at the time of the blind date was Cui Changzhou's subordinate, and only then did she realize that she had been deceived into marriage. At this point, Liu Xikui was completely disappointed in love, so he made a mistake. Subsequently, Cui Changzhou was transferred to other provinces and cities, and died not long after, and Liu Xikui did not remarry and chose to be widowed.
And Liu Xikui is very kind in heart, holding charity performances many times, and all the money earned from the performances to relieve the disaster victims, but also won a lot of people's hearts. Later, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out and Japan invaded China, the people everywhere were bored, and Liu Xikui also chose to live in seclusion. After japan occupied Chinese territory, he became famous for looking for Liu Xikui, hoping that she would perform opera to the Japanese emperor. But Liu Xikui, who has a stubborn personality all his life, and the president she rejected one by one, how can she give the Japanese face? So Japan still touched a nose of ash in front of Liu Xikui.
Until the founding of New China, Premier Zhou visited Liu Xikui many times in order to invite Liu Xikui out of the mountains, and he hoped to pass on the essence of China's national essence, promised to hold an opera academy, and finally said that Liu Xikui was moved. After the establishment of the college, Liu Xikui taught many times and became one of the professors of the college. Liu Xikui made great contributions to Chinese opera throughout her life, and after her death, she was buried in Babaoshan at the age of 70.