Yue opera actor Yuan Xuefen: Innocent and innocent, serious acting

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　　Yuan Xuefen was born in 1922 in Ganlin Town, Shengzhou City, and entered the Four Seasons Spring Yue Opera Class at the age of 11, and began performing in Hangzhou at the age of 14. He came to Shanghai in 1938 and began to reform women's Yue opera from 1942. Her performance and singing voice are soft and delicate, simple and deep, mellow in rhyme, bright in rhythm, and attach importance to the portrayal of characters, known as "Yuan Pai". On February 19, 2011, Yuan Xuefen passed away at the age of 89.

　　"Acting seriously, acting innocently" is the motto of Yuan Xuefen's life, and she constitutes the moving brilliance of yue opera in the past century with her exquisite skills and high integrity. In the life of Yuan Xuefen, she has always held high the banner of reform, with hard work and perseverance, thus giving contemporary Yue opera a strong vitality.

　　Clean and self-righteous All his life he has devoted himself to the reform of Yue opera

　　Although Yuan Xuefen has not read too many books, her father, who is a rural private school teacher, has taught her since she was a child: "Girls are as useful as men, they can all support themselves, you will not rely on your father in the future, two will not rely on your mother, three will not rely on your husband, you must be poor and not poor..." Her father's teaching made her have a hazy sense of self-reliance when she urinated.

　　When Yuan Xuefen was 11 years old, there was a drama team called the Four Seasons Spring Class in the village. Hearing that the protagonist can earn 30 yuan a month, Yuan Xuefen, in order to no longer let her family suffer, despite her father's opposition, took it upon herself to enter this long-term mobile performance class in Shaoxing, Zhuji, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai. Since then, he has begun an 8-year apprenticeship and performance life.

　　Throughout her life, Yuan Xuefen remembered her father's teachings, always cleaned herself, and even though she was born in the "turbid world", she still did not forget to maintain the vigilance of "self-purification". She was intelligent and talented, and by the time she was 14 years old, she had already made a name for herself in Shanghai, and in addition to performing, she refused all church meetings and social gatherings.

　　In 1942, yuan Xuefen, under the influence of progressive drama, began to practice her bold idea of reforming Yue opera. She joined hands with 10 Yue opera celebrities, including Yin Guifang, Zhu Shuizhao, Xiao Dangui, Xu Yulan, Fan Ruijuan, Fu Quanxiang, Xu Tianhong, Zhang Guifeng, Wu Xiaolou, etc., to raise funds to initiate the reform of Yue opera at the Dalai Theatre. This is the origin of the "Ten Sisters of Yue Opera", which became famous later.

　　At that time, Yuan Xuefen was worth 40,000 yuan, but she only received a salary of 1,000 yuan per month, and the rest of the money was used to hire full-time screenwriters, directors, stage designers, stage supervisors, etc., which was her way of reforming Yue opera. She led the establishment of the Drama Department to preside over the performance activities, and for the first time in the Yue opera industry, a formal system of choreography and rehearsal was established; the curtain system was abolished and a complete script was used; the clothing box system was abolished, and the costumes were designed according to the identity of the characters; the traditional stage form was broken, and the three-dimensional set, oil paint costume, lighting, and sound were used to gradually form a comprehensive artistic mechanism. In terms of performance, it draws on the strengths of all, absorbs the realist performance characteristics of dramas and films that attach importance to portraying the character and inner activities of the characters, and the strengths of Kunqu opera in singing and dancing, and attaches importance to the beautification of physical movements into Yue opera, and melts and innovates them. Her reforms were emulated by Yue opera actors and other genres, and were taught by later scholars.

　　In November 1943, the play "Xiangfei" written and directed by Nan Wei was staged. When performing a crying scene, Yuan Xuefen did not act according to the original singing voice and lyrics, but issued a high cry from her chest and cried out a long cavity, and with the cooperation of the violinist Zhou Baocai, the audience was infected and could not cry. This singing voice improvised by Yuan Xuefen and Zhou Baocai was later designated as the "ruler tone cavity", which became one of the main tones of Yue opera after being gradually perfected, and thus formed a distinctive feature of the "Yuan School" art.

　　Yuan Xuefen is not only an outstanding Yue opera performance artist, but also a social activist and theater activist. She has served as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, vice chairman of the China Dramatists Association, vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and chairman of the Shanghai Drama Association. After retiring, she has been concerned about the development of the Yue opera career and the entire theater industry.

　　"I am the daughter of Shengzhou and I am back"

　　On March 26, 2006, Yue opera celebrated its centennial birthday, and 84-year-old Yuan Xuefen returned to her hometown of Shengzhou. When the opening ceremony of the 100-year Yue opera Shengzhou "Yue Opera Bus" was held in Dongwang Village, Ganlin Town, the birthplace of Yue Opera, Yuan Xuefen personally presented the flag to the "Yue Opera Bus". In front of the incense hall in Dongwang Village, the birthplace of Yue opera, Yuan Xuefen said excitedly and affectionately: "I am the daughter of Shengzhou, and I have returned."

　　In 2010, the Municipal Yue Opera Art School opened an inheritor class, and hired the "Ten Sisters of Yue Opera" and the founders of various genres of Yue Opera as consultants. After learning this news, Yuan Xuefen, who was lying on her sickbed, gladly took up her pen and sent a message to the Yue opera inheritors class to open in her hometown, and was hired as an art consultant for the older generation of famous Yue opera performing artists such as Fan Ruijuan, Fu Quanxiang, Xu Yulan, Zhang Guifeng, Wang Wenjuan, Jin Caifeng, Lu Ruiying, and Bi Chunfang.

Yuan Xuefen mentored the youth

　　"For Yuan Xuefen, caring about her hometown is caring about Yue opera. Her life is the life of Yue opera. Qian Jiangnan, principal of the Municipal Yue Opera Art School, told reporters that when preparing to build the Yue Opera Home, Yuan Xuefen mobilized donations from Yue opera troupes in Shanghai and across the country, which received responses from more than 200 Yue opera troupes across the country, and the charity performances raised more than 80,000 yuan. From site selection to fundraising, a lot of effort has been poured into Teacher Yuan. ”

　　After Yuan Xuefen became the director of the Shanghai Yue Opera Theatre, she often sent precious Yue opera materials to my Yue Opera Art School in the city, and encouraged the students of the art school to win glory for the hometown of Yue opera. When art school students go to Shanghai to perform, no matter how busy they are, Yuan Xuefen will rush to the scene to guide and watch.

　　As the honorary curator of shengzhou Yue opera museum, Yuan Xuefen has always paid attention to the construction of the museum. At the beginning of the establishment of the museum, she launched the charity performance of Yue opera actors in the Shanghai Yue opera industry, and she herself took the lead in donating early costumes, ornaments, song books and many valuable things, and also actively mobilized other Yue opera seniors to donate. In 2010, on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the museum, she published a picture album of cultural relics in the museum's collection, and she gladly wrote a preface to the album.

Portrait of Yuan Xuefen taken in the 1950s

　　In April 2011, Yuan Xuefen's three sons donated precious cultural relics such as the "Magnolia" commemorative trophy and manuscript left by Yuan Xuefen to the Yue Opera Museum free of charge. Yuan Xuefen's eldest son, Zheng Haiya, said in an interview that her mother has always been very concerned about the construction of her hometown, especially the development of Yue opera, and the Yue Opera Museum is one of her painstaking efforts, they are based on her mother's last wishes, sorted out some of her relics, hoping to display them in the museum to educate future generations.

　　Yuan Xuefen, who dedicated her life to Yue opera, also turned away like her interpretation of "Liang Zhu" - her heart is only for Yue opera; her person, proud of xue fragrance...