Peking Opera celebrity Sun Yumin: Excluded in a special era, at the age of 28, he sold blood for his mother 17 times to raise money for the car
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Peking Opera is a representative of traditional Chinese opera and a treasure of Chinese culture. In the history of the development of Peking Opera, there are many outstanding performing artists who have made great contributions to the art of Peking Opera with their talents and painstaking efforts. Among them, there is a Xun School Peking Opera performance artist Sun Yumin.
Sun Yumin is a personal disciple of Xun Huisheng, one of the four famous dan of Peking Opera, and is also the representative inheritor of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage items of Peking Opera, a national first-class actor, the winner of the 2nd Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, and the former president of Beijing Opera Art Vocational College. She is not only good at performing Xun Pai's main plays such as "Red Lady" and "Xun Guanniang", but also created and arranged new plays such as "Song Palace Odd Injustice", "Double Jade Yuan", "Dream" and "A Generation of Virtuous Queens", and has become her masterpiece. She is also a Peking Opera educator who has cultivated a large number of opera talents, and her disciples include Tang Hexiang, Chang Qiuyue, Xu Cui and so on.
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However, such a great fighter in the Peking Opera industry has experienced many ups and downs and hardships in her life. She was ostracized and suppressed in a special year, and was transferred from Beijing and sent to Henan. In order to be able to reunite with her mother and two younger sisters in Xinjiang, she tried to save every penny, and even sold blood again and again, until the seventeenth time, she scraped together enough money to bring her mother and sister, who were dependent on each other, to Beijing. She once broke her lumbar vertebrae, crushed fractures of her feet, and shattered her heel bone into more than two dozen pieces because she jumped off a building. She once neglected her health because of her performance, resulting in advanced liver cancer.
Sun Yumin passed away at Union Hospital on the evening of March 28, 2023 at the age of 83. A number of people in the Peking Opera industry confirmed the news. Her death has caused countless fans and disciples to feel grief and regret. Her life and deeds have also attracted widespread attention and review. Today, we will revisit the story of this Peking Opera celebrity Sun Yumin.
Born in Shanghai, Sun Yumin grew up in poverty, and began to learn opera at the age of ten, first learning wudan and then specializing in Hua Dan. In 1953, she transferred to Beijing Opera School, studied opera from Zhang Junqiu, and after graduation in 1959, she was assigned to the Beijing Xun Huisheng Peking Opera Troupe, and in the same year, Xun Huisheng, one of the four famous dan of Peking Opera, was taught by Xun Huisheng. Xun Huisheng performed "Xun Guanniang" that had just been arranged for the 10th anniversary of the National Day to Sun Yumin, personally dressed as a horse boy, and "led the horse and fell stirrups" for Xun Guanniang, played by Sun Yumin. The premiere of "Xun Guanniang" made Sun Yumin famous, and since then she has been the starring actor for a long time, performing more than 200 performances a year.
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Sun Yumin once recalled that although the drama became more and more popular the more she sang, her life was still very tight at that time. In order to be reunited with her mother and two younger sisters in Xinjiang, she tried to save every penny, and even sold blood again and again, until the seventeenth time, she scraped together enough money to bring her mother and sister, who were dependent on each other, to Beijing. "I sell blood to send money home," she said. I have three daughters at home and I am the eldest daughter. After my father died, my mother took our three daughters to Xinjiang. My mother worked as a coolie in Xinjiang for more than ten years. I wanted to bring them to Beijing, but the fare was too expensive. I thought about selling blood. I sold blood seventeen times, for twenty dollars each. I sent them money and asked them to buy a bus ticket to Beijing. ”
In 1966, after the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Sun Yumin was ostracized and suppressed, and was transferred from Beijing and sent to Henan. With a stubborn personality, she jumped off the building, resulting in a fractured lumbar spine, crushing fractures of both feet, and shattered heel bones into more than two dozen. "At that time, I felt like I had no way to live," she said. I just wanted to die. I jumped from the fourth floor. Instead of dying, he crippled himself. After three years in Henan Medical College, she returned to the Henan Peking Opera Troupe. It happened that the regiment was rehearsing "Surprise Attack on the White Tiger Regiment", and she lacked a mass role, so she topped it. Even though the character doesn't have a single line, and stands at the very horn of the stage and goes unnoticed, she is happy because she is back on the stage of professional performances after all.
After returning to the Beijing stage in 1978, Sun Yumin became the winner of the National Drama Plum Blossom Award and the first Mei Lanfang Gold Award. Xun Pai plays more low-class people, and they need to kneel often on the stage, there are kneeling in "Red Lady", kneeling in "Jin Yunu", kneeling in "Red Chamber Eryou" and "Yutangchun", Sun Yumin gritted his teeth to put pressure on himself, "almost didn't take a day of sick leave". In the early 1980s, when he played Wang Xifeng in "Red Mansion Eryou", he suddenly fainted on stage. After examination, it was found that liver cancer was advanced.
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In the face of the threat of life, Sun Yumin did not give up, she insisted on performing and teaching, and also created and arranged new plays such as "Song Palace Curious Injustice", "Double Jade Edge", "Dream" and "A Generation of Virtuous Queens", and became her masterpiece. "I don't want my life to end like this," she said. I still have a lot more I want to do. I also want to pass on the art of Xunpai. I want to make more contributions to the art of Peking Opera. "With her perseverance and faith, she overcame the disease and extended her life.
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In 1991, Sun Yumin was appointed as the principal of the Beijing Opera School, becoming another member of the Beijing Opera School after Hao Shouchen, Ma Lianliang, Xun Huisheng and Shang Xiaoyun. She started with "Four Little Whiskers Gave Birth to Jiangnan", changing the past practice of closing schools and making opera teaching widely concerned by the society. She also actively promotes the popularization and exchange of Peking Opera art, and has led teachers and students to perform and give lectures in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, the United States, Japan and other places. She said: "The art of Peking Opera is the art of people, and if an art wants to live for centuries, there must be successors. ”
Sun Yumin not only carefully sorted out and summarized the plays learned from Xun Huisheng, but also carried forward the art of Xun Pai by constantly accepting apprentices. Her disciples are scattered all over the country, and some have become leading figures in the Peking Opera world. She was both strict and caring for her disciples, often calling, writing, giving gifts, and guiding performances. She said, "I am very satisfied with my disciples. They are all talented and have a lot of potential. They are all my pride. ”
Sun Yumin calls herself the "Qi School in Danjiao", and in addition to learning Xun, her kung fu is used outside the play - she can calligraphy, write, lecture, and figure out all kinds of human feelings and jokes in the world. Peers often joke: Sun Yumin is a thief and the most capable of stealing drama. Her "Dream" originated from Kunqu opera, and has her originality. The singing voice was jointly designed by her and Gao Yiming, a national first-class composer of the Shanghai Peking Opera House, which is both characteristic and innovative of Xun School.
Sun Yumin's attachment to Shanghai even extended to the choice of a mate, and she and her husband were introduced to each other. She once recalled, "When he came, as soon as he heard the Shanghai accent, it evoked the warmth of nostalgia for my hometown." At the end of 1972, I went to his home in Shanghai. With only forty dollars in deposit, we had a humble wedding. Sun Yumin and her husband fell in love with each other and settled in Beijing.
Sun Yumin passed away at Union Hospital on the evening of March 28, 2023 at the age of 83. A number of people in the Peking Opera industry confirmed the news. Her death has caused countless fans and disciples to feel grief and regret. Her life and deeds have also attracted widespread attention and review. She has used her life to make indelible contributions to the art of Peking Opera. She is the inheritor and innovator of Xun Pai art, as well as an educator and promoter of Peking Opera art. She is a great Peking Opera performance artist and a strong woman. Her name will forever remain in the history of Peking Opera.
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