Du Jinfang, a Peking Opera performing artist and representative inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project (Peking Opera), died in Beijing at 22:26 on April 17, 2021 at the age of 89 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Li Shaochun and Du Jinfang starred in "Wild Boar Forest" Source: Liberation Daily
Du Jinfang has a deep relationship with Shanghai. On November 12, 2012, Jiefang Daily published a long reminiscence article by Du Jinfang: One Door and Three Generations of Love Involving Shanghai - Toben Newspaper Calls on Old Friends and New Friends in Shanghai to Collect Biographical Materials.
Liberation Daily interviewed Du Jinfang
Du Jinfang, formerly known as Chen Yuhua, born in Beijing in 1932, studied under Wang Yaoqing and Mei Lanfang, and experimented with Peking Opera at the China Academy of Performing Arts (the predecessor of the China Peking Opera House), whose representative works include "The Legend of the White Snake", "Xie Yaohuan", "Liu YinJi", "Peach Blossom Fan" and so on.
Du Jinfang did not know who her biological parents were, and was sold into the Chen family in her infancy. Her father, Chen Xiguanggong, hammered a flower face and named her Chen Yuhua. "I grew up watching adults rehearse plays and hang their voices, and I thought I could do this too. So I proposed to my father that I couldn't memorize the Three Character Sutra, but I could sing the Three Character Sutra. At the age of 6, Du Jinfang appeared on stage to star in "He Hou Scolding Hall". The first success strengthened her father's determination to cultivate her as an artist. Due to the family's poverty, Chen Xiguang had to sell his daughter to Du Juchu. At the age of 12, Chen Yuhua became Du Juchu's righteous daughter, and her adoptive father gave her the name "Du Jinfang", which would later become famous as Jutan.
Du Jinfang accepted Shanghai Peking Opera house actor Li Guojing as an apprentice Source: Liberation Daily
After that, Du Jinfang entered Wang Yaoqing's door to study art. Wang Yaoqing is an outstanding opera educator, and the "four famous Dans" are all out of the king's door. Wang Yaoqing's nephew, Wang Shaoqing, who has been playing the piano for Mei Lanfang for many years, has taken the initiative to teach her Mei Pai opera. Two generations of uncles and nephews have bred a disciple, coupled with hard work and diligence, Du Jinfang's art has grown rapidly, and after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he has emerged in Beijing and Tianjin.
In 1949, Li Shaochun and Yuan Shihai came to Shanghai at the invitation of the Tiantou Stage. Li Shaochun mainly played "Wild Boar Forest", the Lin Niangzi in the play has not been a suitable candidate, Yuan Shihai recommended Du Jinfang. Before leaving, Wang Yaoqing took a letter to Du Jinfang and recommended her to worship Mei Lanfang as a teacher.
Du Jinfang, who was less than 17 years old, first ventured onto the beach. At the Mei House, Du Jinfang took out a still of "Farewell to the Overlord" for Mei Lanfang to identify, mei Lanfang believed that she had filmed it when she was young, and she couldn't remember what year it was. Mrs. Mei Fuzhifang looked at the half-time and found that a decoration in the photo was not used by Mei Lanfang, and Du Jinfang unveiled the mystery, "Sir, this is me." ”
Source: National Peking Theatre
Although Du Jinfang came to Shanghai for the first time, she was full of confidence and felt that Shanghai audiences would like her. "Yutang Spring", "Wild Boar Forest", "Overlord Farewell", three plays down, Du Jinfang's fame on the beach, the Toad Stage is full for 70 days. After Mei Lanfang saw the performance, she happily agreed to accept Du Jinfang as an apprentice.
In 1951, the China Opera Research Institute was established, with an experimental troupe under it, and Du Jinfang resolutely joined the state-owned troupe. Du Jinfang said that his life was not good, but his luck was good, "I didn't understand politics at all." For the first time, the word 'liberation' had an impact on my heart. Du Jinfang also did not live up to the opportunities given to her by the new era, in addition to practicing exercises and rehearsing plays, she also participated in literacy classes and literacy classes. Going to the Korean battlefield to offer condolence performances, Du Jinfang took the lead in signing up.
Du Jinfang and Mei Lanfang Source: National Peking Theatre
Once, at the Chang'an Grand Theater, he performed "Golden Broken Thunder" (short for Golden Mountain Temple, Broken Bridge, and Leifeng Pagoda), and Zhou Enlai went to see a play. Du Jinfang first learned the singing method of Beikun, and then learned the singing of Nankun in Shanghai, which has its own characteristics. After the play, Zhou Enlai came to the backstage: "I see that you are quite capable, why don't you sing Tian Hanlao's "Golden Bowl"? Du Jinfang said that he was young and uneducated at that time, and his speech was too rough: "The Golden Bowl is like a villain book, I want to sing a big drama!" Zhou Enlai did not care about her bluntness: "Well, let Zheng Yiqiu take you to see Elder Tian Han." Du Jinfang also "had to make inches": "Premier, you have to say to Tian Han for me, people don't know who we are?" Du Jinfang said bluntly that he didn't know who Tian Han was at that time! After returning from the Korean battlefield, Tian Han's script has been written and the stage has been moved. From "The Legend of the White Snake" to "Xie Yaohuan", Du Jinfang and Tian Han left a good story of the combination of artists and literati.
In 1988, Shanghai held a meipai performance at home and abroad, and Du Jinfang's performance of "Broken Bridge" set off a climax. After the performance, Zhu Rongji, then mayor of Shanghai, set up a banquet to thank the actors, but Du Jinfang did not get noticed and went shopping on the street. Later, she was found and rushed to the hotel to find that the banquet had not yet been held, and Zhu Rongji was waiting for her to come. Du Jinfang deeply felt, "It is the party that makes the artists completely turn over, respect and respect us, respect and respect, the first thing I teach students is not to forget this." ”
In 1993, Shanghai organized the "Oriental Yayun" Peking Opera Masters Performance, and Du Jinfang sang "The Phoenix Returns to the Nest", "I have been loved and loved by the Shanghai literary and art circles. Du Jinfang thought of the audience in Shanghai and hung up on his friends in Shanghai. She cherishes the good memories of her first arrival in Shanghai, practicing in the new world, learning drama on Mas South Road, listening to the commentary and learning Suzhou dialect, watching Nankun and watching Yue opera.
Ding Xiaojun, a student of Du Jinfang, said that as long as he came to Shanghai to perform, Master attached great importance to it, saying that this was a big battle. When Ding Xiaojun first came to Shanghai in 2010, Du Jinfang wrote a long letter, but the letter did not look up, "She does not know who to write to, but I understand that Master is writing to all the audience in Shanghai, and she wants everyone." ”
Du Jinfang once said in an interview with the Jiefang Daily reporter: "Wang Jiaxi of the Shanghai Art Research Institute has helped me a lot, he has been ill for many years and I want to see him, but I am also a sick number, and I can only wish him good health!" I have an emotional debt for the audience in Shanghai, and now I have to let the students pay for me. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi
Source: Author: Wang Xuan Zhuge Yi