Kunqu master Zhang Jiqing died at the age of 83

Yesterday (January 8) morning, the farewell ceremony for the remains of Comrade Zhang Jiqing, a famous Kunqu performing artist, a national first-class actor and a representative inheritor of Kunqu opera at the national intangible cultural heritage project, was held in Nanjing.

Zhang Jiqing died in Nanjing at 12:56 on January 6, 2022 at the age of 83.

Zhang Jiqing, formerly known as Zhang Yiqing, was born on January 3, 1939 in Suzhou to an opera family. Zhang Jiqing is an outstanding representative of the first batch of Kunqu opera inheritors cultivated and grown up after the founding of New China, the first Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, and is known as the queen of Chinese Kunqu opera and the Danjiao festival. She has worked quietly on the stage all her life, spent a lot of energy to rescue, protect and sort out Kunqu materials, cared about talent training, and made important contributions to the inheritance and development of Kunqu opera.