I remember around 1978, in the streets and alleys of Shanghai and the alleys of the road, I could often hear such a Shanghai opera singing section on the radio:
Once upon a time there was a little girl who really wanted to carry her school bag to school. How could it be that her grandfather died when she was three years old, and there was no money and no food in the family, all relying on an old mother to help others get rid of clothes...
This Shanghai opera fuzi board, as cordial as speaking, tells the miraculous experience of an illiterate girl who became a people's teacher in the new society and thus "chicken feathers flew to the sky". Soon, this singing swept throughout Shanghai, and many men, women and children would hum one or two sentences.
Portrait of Ding Shi'e (1923-1988)
In fact, this is an excerpt "Education Tiger Rong" sung by Lin Peifen, the heroine of the 1958 Shanghai opera "Chicken Feathers Flying to the Sky". Because this singing made the audience feel the charm of the long-lost traditional Shanghai opera, it caused a more enthusiastic response than that year. The singer is Ding Shi'e, a famous Shanghainese opera actor who was forced to leave the stage for ten years. With the replay of the recording of the singing segment, Ding Shi'e naturally entered the public eye again, and then people found that Ding Shi'e's life experience was very similar to "this little girl", no wonder she sang so truly and movingly.
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky"
Ding is E's original name Pan Yonghua, and Ding Is E is her stage name changed after she studied under her teacher Ding Wan'e. A native of Wuxing, Zhejiang, she was born in 1923 in Hongkou, Shanghai. Both parents were meager silk reeling factory workers. Growing up in hardship and hardship, Ding Shi'e often did not even have enough to eat, let alone go to school to read or read or have any toys, and the only pleasure was to watch the performances of street performers. This made the early-witted Ding Shi'e increase her insight, and also had the idea of learning drama to earn money to support her family and change her destiny. After her mother died at the age of 9, with the help of her kind aunt, she got rid of the fate of being a child bride and realized her wish to learn to sing Shenqu.
However, the road to learning art is also full of hardships, and it is "common to suffer and even scold and be beaten". Dante is a clear ambition, gritting her teeth and learning to act step by step. At the same time, through eyes and ears, "a word is like a pearl, and in dreams, I am also memorizing books, desperately learning not to take lightly", and removing the hat of "illiteracy". In 1936, the master set up the "Wanshe Children's Shenqu Class", and she did not let herself become a pillar, and gradually took the lead among the little girls in the same batch and won the title of "Little Wan'e".
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Madame Butterfly"
After learning to act, Ding Shi'e followed the drama class and began to run the dock and sing tea houses. Some hooligans often play entertainers here, and the fledgling Ding Ise has been humiliated and bullied. Often, his face was smashed by the copper plate flying from the stage, and his nose was blue and swollen, and he shed tears. But it is this difficult environment that prompts Ding Shi'e to work hard and use her acting skills to change her destiny.
In 1943, fate finally took a turn for the worse after Ding Shi'e went through four troupes. Ding Shi'e played a "female man" who ran a single gang in the "Women's Singles Gang" launched by Wenbin Theatre Troupe, singing well, resonating with many female compatriots in the audience, Ding Shi'e began to run, like chicken feathers flying into the sky, famous, becoming a rising star on the Shanghai Opera stage. Later, Ding Shi'e and Xie Hongyuan formed the Yihu Opera Troupe by themselves, with a wide range of plays, good at shaping characters with different personalities, and formed a graceful and beautiful "Ding Pai" singing voice.
Wenbin Theatre Company performs advertisements
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Diary of an Actor"
But Ding Shi'e shined or after 1949, when she was 26 years old and had a strong sense of turnaround, she embraced the new society with enthusiasm and devoted herself to the new drama performance. "Luohan Qian" is the most representative play of this period.
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Luohan Qian"
Ding Is'e plays the protagonist Xiaofei'e in the play, and she has many new creations in this role. After walking through a period of "detours", Ding Shi'e sorted out the character development context, and the performance was like a flowing cloud, smooth and accessible. Several of the songs are handled in a more nuanced manner, and the emotional colors are full of rich colors, showing that she has made an important breakthrough in controlling modern characters with complex and changeable personalities.
Stills of the Shanghai opera "Jin Dailai"
"LuoHan Qian" went to Beijing to perform, and Ding Shi'e was awarded the first prize of the National Opera Observation Performance Actor. Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou, and other central leaders all watched the play and gave it a high degree of affirmation, and the original author, Zhao Shuli, was even more praised. In 1956, the play was made into a movie and screened all over the country, and Ding Shi'e accompanied the Shanghai opera "Luohan Qian" film in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and became famous and well-known.
In 1959, the Shanghai opera industry engaged in star conferences and adapted Cao Yu's famous drama "Thunderstorm", and ding was the role of prosperity played by Ding Ise and won the title of "living prosperity", showing Ding Shi'e's extraordinary ability to grasp complex roles.
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Thunderstorm"
In 1960, Ding Shi'e played Ah Qing's sister-in-law in "Ludang Tinder". In shaping the artistic image of this dual identity, she grasped the main bone of the character, tepid, not humble, pay attention to proportions, just right. In the heavy scenes such as "Wisdom Fight", they are vivid and vivid, delicate and convey the spirit, and reach a high artistic realm. This play was performed more than 500 times in a row at the Majestic Theatre, breaking the performance record of the Shanghai Opera Stage at that time. It was said to be the culmination of her six decades of acting. Later, Ah Qingyi in the modern Peking Opera "Sha Jiabang" borrowed many of Ding Shi'e's creative achievements.
Shanghai opera "Ludang Tinder" instruction manual
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Ludang Tinder"
After 1978, the Shanghai opera stage once again prospered. A song "Once Upon a Time There Was a Little Girl" made the audience restore their enthusiasm and expectations for Ding Shi'e, Ding Shi'e successively performed new and old plays such as "Difficult Journey", "Battle of Jia Wu", "Wild Horse", "The Spit-on Man", etc. At this time, Ding Shi'e's reputation was like the sun in the sky, and everywhere she went were flowers and applause.
Dante Wase was calmer than ever. At this time, she served as the director of the Shanghai Theater, and offered to make way for the young actors, not even the B corner, in order to let the audience have no comparison and trust the young actors, so that the young actors could take the cusp on the Shanghai opera stage as soon as possible and change the status quo of the drama.
Stills from the Shanghai opera "The Spit on Man"
She grasps the repertoire, engages in theater construction, and provides a platform and channel for young actors to stand out in a planned and targeted manner. He even personally presided over the "1984 Shanghai Opera Young Actors New Year Concert", and in 1988, when he was seriously ill, he also planned the "Shanghai Opera Middle-aged Actors Voice Screen Competition" in the hospital ward...
Ding is a young actor such as E and Mao Shanyu
Chen Yu, Zhu Huiqin, Shen Huizhong, Ma Lili, Mao Shanyu, Lu Xianli, etc. are all new generations of Shanghai opera famous actors who have grown up under the care of her wings, and Ding Shi'e's "Ding Pai" art has benefited generations of Shanghai opera actresses to this day, which is unforgettable.
Ding is E, Ma Lili, mao Shanyu