Li Shifang (1921-1947) Peking Opera Performance Artist Peking Opera Danjiao Peking Opera actor, named Fulu, was born in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. His parents are both Shanxi Zizi actors. In particular, his father Li Zijian is a famous actor with a wide range of drama paths, Qingyi, Huadan, Daomadan, and Caidan, and has a unique job for each character. Li Shifang is humble and has no arrogance of ordinary people.
In 1942, he and his newlywed wife Yao Baolian performed in Qingdao for the first time, and people who had never seen Mei Lanfang's drama before had the opportunity to see the performance of "Little Mei Lanfang" and praised it one after another. Because he not only looks exactly like him, but also sings very similarly, the plays he played in Qingdao this time are all Meipai dramas such as "Life and Death Hate", "Overlord Farewell", "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers", "Cosmic Front" and so on, so he is particularly welcomed by the Audience in Qingdao, and has been performing for thirteen days before he returned to Shanghai.
In 1934, the "Sheng" character science students graduated from school and left one after another. In order to perform the attendance rate, Fu Liancheng invited Mr. Zhang Cailin to teach and arrange some Danjiao dramas. First of all, "Huatian Mistake" with "Peach Blossom Village", the young lady played by Li Shifang acted very impressively, singing, reading and doing well, Mao Shilai's Chunlan, Yuan Shihai's Lu Zhishen was also singing and reading properly, and was unanimously praised by the audience. Li Shifang's artistic talent has since stood out. Then, Cobain rehearsed "Li Zhu Dream" for him, because he felt that his voice and appearance were quite similar to Mei Lanfang's youth, so he decided to rehearse Mei Pai's new play for him. In the spring of 1935, "Farewell to the Overlord" was premiered in Guanghe Lou, and his Meipai style surprised the four seats, and for a while, all the newspapers and periodicals in Beijing published articles praising and giving him the nickname of "Little Mei Lanfang". The vast number of audiences who are obsessed with Mei Lanfang's art have rushed to Guanghe Lou to see the style of "Xiaomei". The spread of the name "Little Mei Lanfang" attracted Mei Lanfang's friend and Peking Opera researcher Mr. Qi Rushan to love Li Shifang, and Mr. Qi taught Li Shifang's new costume plays "Qingwen Tearing Fan", "Chang'e Running Moon" and "Red Thread Stealing Box". Later, Mr. Shang Xiaoyun was attracted, and Mr. Shang was pleased with him, and arranged four major dramas for him, "Tianhe Match", "The Legend of Kunlun Swordsman", "Juanjuan" and "Golden Bottle Girl". After more than a year of rain and dew by Mr. Shang, he has made a leap forward in his art.
In the winter of that year, Li Shifang was elected "Chairman of Tongling" with an absolute advantage over others by 5,000 or 6,000 votes. In 1939, Beijing Liyan Bao accepted the suggestion of readers and followed the example of the selection of the "Four Famous Dans" in the 1920s, and hosted the activity of selecting the "Four Little Famous Dans" from among the young rookies. Finally, Li Shifang, Mao Shilai, Zhang Junqiu, and Song Dezhu were listed as the "Four Little Famous Dans". At this time, Li Shifang had left Fu Liancheng, and it was during the period of "inverting the warehouse" in his voice, he had neither organized nor taken a class, and had been raising his voice and learning drama at home. Although he has not performed publicly for a long time, he is still pushed to the top of the "Four Little Famous Dans", which shows how charming and deeply rooted his performing arts are.
Li Shifang's voice is wide, the timbre is beautiful, the tone is pure, has a deep singing skill, and is very good at using his own conditions, especially after being carefully instructed by Mr. Wang Shaoqing, the meiqin master, he can sing a pure Mei Pai charm. His singing can be said to be no agitated, high-pitched voice, but there is a lingering sound around the beam. If he can survive in the world, he will have greater development and achievements in the art of singing, and will definitely win the drama world with his charm.