Bai Yushuang was the founder of the "White School" art, and in the 1930s, together with Liu Cuixia, Ai Lianjun and Xi Cailian, he was called the "Four Famous Dans" of the commentary. Bai lived in Tianqiao Hutong before becoming famous, and his adoptive father was Li Jingchun, a lotus flower fall artist.
The earliest origin of the drama was the lotus flower, the drama team did not have its own stage, and the performance was often "picking up the ground" and "setting up the tent". After the hard work of the lotus flower artists, it eventually developed into a commentary after several changes. However, in order to attract the audience, the commentaries at that time mostly added some "flowers" and "hun" content to the script and performance, which was a relatively common phenomenon in local dramas at that time. White jade cream is naturally not exempt from vulgarity, but this move has attracted the name of wind and lasciviousness. In fact, Bai Yushuang often deleted and changed the "pink words" during the performance, but the audience who watched the commentary did not support it, and had no choice but to restore the old lyrics.
Stills from "Begonia Red"
In 1932, the "Beiping City Opera Review Committee" was established, and its main work was to strictly examine the opera that was performed for the first time in Beiping, the local drama performed in Beiping from a foreign port, and the drama, including the opera (festival) performed in the tea house, the amusement club, etc., from drama to performance and makeup. (I wonder if there is censorship of today's deyun society's cross-talk program?) But mostly there is pornography, and most of them are concentrated in judging.
Beiping's large-scale "sweeping away pornography" of opera performances has not attracted the attention of various performance venues and performance theaters. In order to compete for the audience and the box office, the competition with the same industry, the wind of attracting the audience with low-level fun has become more and more intense. In a review report submitted by the clerk, it was said that "Fengtian commented on the performance and lyrics of many involved indecency", "Kunjiao white jade cream, the expression is the most obscene", and suggested that the owners of the performance venues Sanqing Garden, Siming Opera Garden and Amusement Park be summoned to the Social Bureau for investigation. Some plays require strict compliance with the lines, typhoons, clothing, etc., and sign the pledge, write a letter of guarantee, and no longer do a performance that is offensive to morality. At the same time, individual actors were also summoned and even expelled, and it was at this time that Bai Yushuang hit the muzzle of the gun.
According to the party's recollection, the mayor of Beiping at that time was called Yuan Liang, a native of Zhejiang, who never watched commentaries. Recently, I suddenly became interested in Bai Yushuang, watched several of her scenes, and took the lead in the scene. One day, after watching the play, the mayor sent someone to send a letter and invited boss Bai (white jade cream) to eat a supper. As a result, that day the white jade frost was awkward, dead or alive is not going. Yuan Liang played the banner of maintaining the social weathering of Beiping and completely "swept away pornography" against the drama team that did not obey discipline.
The next day, the Beiping authorities personally approved the "ban on performances" and expelled Bai Yushuang from the city immediately. Bai Yushuang's commentary club came with several policemen with guns on their backs, holding official documents in their hands, saying that because the performance of "Take the Fly" was "offensive to morality", the mayor did not let Bai Yushuang act in Beiping, and ordered that Bai Yushuang and his drama team be immediately expelled from Beiping City and escorted back to their hometown in Tianjin. The patrolmen also followed Bai Yushuang and the others to the train, and did not get off the train until Fengtai Station.
In 1942, Bai Yushuang was humiliated by the Japanese, suffered from uterine cancer and suddenly fell on the stage, blood stained costumes and carpets, and died at the age of 35.
Note: This article is based on my book "History of Contemporary Beijing Drama Criticism"