Sun Yumin, a famous Peking Opera performing artist, representative inheritor of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage items of Peking Opera, national first-class actor, winner of the Second Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, and a personal disciple of Master Xun Huisheng, died at Peking Union Medical College Hospital at 6 pm on March 28, 2023 at the age of 83 due to multiple organ failure, which was ineffective after rescue. Sun Yumin has had a bumpy life, but he has always been optimistic. She once said, "I've lived two lifetimes, and I want to live doubly the value." ”
Master Xun Huisheng is a personal disciple
Create miracles of returning to the stage after disability
Sun Yumin was born in Shanghai in 1940. At the age of 8, he learned to sing Peking Opera and performed on stage, and at the age of 10, he officially entered the class to learn Wudan and then switched to Hua Dan, and was later selected as a student of the inheritance genre, and worshipped Xun Huisheng, one of the four famous dans, as a teacher. Under the personal teaching of Xun Huisheng, Sun Yumin's performance level has been greatly improved, and he has accurately mastered Xun Pai dramas such as "Xun Guanniang" and "Red Lady", and soon became the leading actor in the troupe, performing more than 200 performances a year.
During the Cultural Revolution, at the age of 28, she was forced to withdraw from the stage, attempted suicide and became disabled, resulting in a ruptured first lumbar vertebrae, crushing fractures of both feet, incontinence, and paralysis for five years.
At that time, the doctor thought that Sun Yumin might never be able to appear on the stage again, but she finally returned to the stage with her tenacious perseverance, created one vivid and wonderful artistic image after another, won the reputation of "Living Red Lady" with her superb acting skills, and won many awards such as the Plum Blossom Award and the Mei Lanfang Gold Award, the highest award in Chinese drama, and also won the "Best Asian Artist Lifetime Achievement Award" internationally, creating miracles in medicine and stage.
Principals with creative thinking
It has made important contributions to the cultivation of Peking Opera talents
In September 1991, Sun Yumin was appointed as the principal of Beijing Opera School. While doing a good job in the construction of the teaching team and the training of students' basic skills, she boldly proposed the teaching mode of "opening the door to run a school and inviting famous teachers to teach", and used her personal connections to invite many Peking Opera professionals to teach students, which benefited students a lot. Under the leadership of Sun Yumin, the school has climbed three steps in less than a year, and has won the honors of Beijing Municipality, the Ministry of Culture and the National Key School.
She also tried everything to solve the hardware problem of the school, so that Beijing Opera School has a 6-storey rehearsal building, becoming one of the best schools of the same kind in the province in the country, known as the "cradle" of Peking Opera talents, and in 2002 was upgraded to "Beijing Opera Art Vocational College" with full-time higher vocational education qualifications, and it is also the only public art vocational college in Beijing.
Sun Yumin is recognized as a principal with "creative thinking". She discovered the famous "Four Little Whiskers" Mu Yu, Ma Chaobo, Luyuan and Yuqi, and arranged many performances for them, making these four teenagers popular all over the country. The "Cross-Strait Five Opera School Peking Opera Competition" cooperated with well-known enterprises has become a grand event in Liyuan. She cooperated with French directors to popularize Peking Opera knowledge to foreigners in a new form of "bringing Peking Opera classes to the stage", and the first "Peking Opera First Lesson" was performed in France and European countries with great success, starting a decade-long cooperation between Beijing Opera Art Vocational College and foreign institutions.
Even after retiring from the post of president, she still cares about the development of Peking Opera, the cultivation of Peking Opera talents, and the inheritance of national art, and serves as a visiting professor at many universities and art academies. In order to prosper the art of Peking Opera, she has given lectures on Peking Opera knowledge in universities, middle schools and primary schools, as well as at home and abroad; In order to inherit and develop the art of the Xun School, she recruited disciples and made important contributions to the inheritance of Peking Opera art.
She was elected as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a director of the China Peking Opera Art Foundation, and a vice chairman of the Beijing Opera Association, and won a series of honorary titles such as National Model Worker, National 38 Red Flag Bearer, and Advanced Individual in the National Cultural System.
Liyuan Xing lost everyone
Colleagues from all walks of life mourn with deep grief
As an important figure in China's Peking Opera industry today, Sun Yumin's death has shocked and saddened both industry peers and the audience, and they all express their deep condolences and memories for her
Sun Yumin's beloved apprentice, Tang Hexiang, vice president of the Xiqu School affiliated to the Shanghai Theater Academy and vice president of the Xiqu Academy, specially rushed back to Beijing from Shanghai to accompany her master, but her mentor's final departure left her heartbroken and unable to cry. She is infinitely grateful to her master for his sincere teaching and meticulous training, and said that she will live up to her mentor's expectations, devote herself to cultivating talents, and inherit and develop the art of Peking Opera.
Wang Ruohao, screenwriter of the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and visiting professor of the Chinese Academy of Opera, also deeply remembered Sun Yumin: "In 2011, we evaluated the first national Wenhua College Award in Shenyang, you are our Beijing-Kunqu team leader, eating at the same table and watching the performance at the same scene, many of your comments are textbook level, which really benefited a lot... Earlier, let's go to Henan to visit the grottoes, you let me see the injured and shrunken calf bone, you said, little fatty, how fast you walk, how fast I can walk, your optimism, perseverance is really fairy-level free! May the old man enjoy heaven in peace! ”
Liu Bing, the only male disciple of Yu opera master Ma Jinfeng, who graduated from the Chinese Opera Academy, said: "Always remember the teachings of President Sun Yumin, and you sent me in your letter: 'Give a little sunshine and shine, do not give the sun to shine brightly'. May you go all the way! ”
Hou Yu, a young man from the Beijing Opera House, mourned: "My heart hurts! Old Principal Sun Yumin, who has influenced our entire life, go all the way! ”