Li Guang: Remembering his father Li Zongyi

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My family's ancestral home is Tianjin, my father lost my father at a young age, the family is poor, although smart and studious, but I have no choice but to quit school. When he was thirteen or fourteen years old, he went out to work, worked as a child laborer at Tianjin Yizhong Tobacco Company, and worked as a handyman in Tianjin Telephone Bureau... When he was a teenager, his father loved drama, and listening to the old records of Famous Peking Opera artists such as Tan Xinpei, Yu Shuyan, Meng Xiaodong, and An Shuyuan became the greatest pleasure of his father's hard work.

At the age of 15, his father moved to Sanyizhuang, south of The Xiaobailou in Tianjin, where the Tianjin Peking Opera fans gathered, and the brothers Cui Jiesan, Wang Jiesheng and Liu Bingchu all lived near Sanyizhuang. In Sanyizhuang, his father, who was born with a good voice, learned a lot of plays with his ticket friends, and became a well-known young ticket holder at the Box Office of the "Comrade National Opera Society" of Sanyizhuang.

Later, his father's artistic talent was discovered by Bao Jixiang, who had worked with Yu Shuyan for many years. Mr. Bao not only gave his father a lot of guidance in art, but also laid a solid foundation for his father to officially go to the sea and engage in Peking Opera for life.

My father didn't have an old-fashioned education in the old schools, so he didn't have much of a portal view in art. He strives to inherit the tradition, but also boldly reforms and innovates. He is good at many plays, such as the high-school "Xiaoyaojin", "Chopping Yellow Robe", "Yuanmen Chopper", "Lost Chop", etc. are all plays that he often performs and is well received by the audience.

In terms of creating repertoire, as early as the 1940s, my father rehearsed and performed "Pipa Line" created by Tian Han with Liang Xiaoluan. Due to the progressive significance of this play, Tian Han was wanted soon after the performance of the play, and his father, who was the lead actor, became acquainted with the directors of the play, Ma Yanxiang and Li Zigui. After the founding of New China in 1949, when the state established the Xiqu Improvement Bureau, it was Ma Yanxiang and He Haisheng who introduced their father to Beijing to participate in the experimental Peking Opera Troupe led by the Xiqu Improvement Bureau (the predecessor of the National Peking Opera House of China).

In January 1950, my father ended his personal experience of picking and singing opera, and enthusiastically participated in the work of the experimental Peking Opera Troupe, becoming the first batch of Peking opera actors to join the National Theatre after the founding of New China. At that time, the regiment's lineup also included Li Hezeng, Zhang Yunxi, Zhang Chunhua, Li Yilan, Li Hongchun, Zhao Bingxiao, Yan Yunchun, and so on.

The first play rehearsed by the Experimental Peking Opera Troupe was Tian Han's "Jianghan Fishing Song", in which his father played the male protagonist Ruan Fucheng. After that, the Experimental Peking Opera Troupe took two plays, "Jianghan Fishing Song" and "Three Dozen Zhujiazhuang", to Shanghai for two months, with unprecedented pomp and circumstance. These two months of performances also had a special meaning for me - when I was only 9 years old, as a doll in "Jianghan Fishing Song", I made my debut on stage and performed with my father, and this performance also laid the foundation for my future career in Peking Opera.

After that, the Experimental Peking Opera Troupe rehearsed plays such as "Damingfu", "Bing Fu Ji", and "Wuhou Banquet", in which his father played the main role.

In 1952, my father participated in the Condolence Group for the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and performed in North Korea for 4 months; in 1955, he and Ye Shenglan, Du Jinfang, Zhang Yunxi, Zhang Chunhua and other famous actors visited Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Soviet Union, etc., and then participated in the International Theater Festival in Paris, France, which lasted nearly a year; shortly after returning to China at the end of 1956, my father followed the Peking Opera Art Troupe to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile in South America for nearly half a year.

In 1960, in order to support the enrichment of the four major schools of drama troupes of Mei, Shang, Cheng and Xun, the Three Troupes of the National Peking Opera of China were transferred to Beijing as the basic force of the Mei Lanfang Peking Opera Troupe. The following year, after the joint performance of the four major genre troupes, they merged into the Beijing Peking Opera Second Troupe and changed to the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, and his father was transferred to the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe.

In November 1984, his father, who was over 70 years old, gladly accepted the invitation of Tianjin and led the whole family to perform the "Hometown Love" Li Family Special Opera Evening for tianjin audiences, which was performed for 5 consecutive days and the venue was full.

His father was popular among Tianjin audiences, and he never forgot his roots, so even though he was over seventy years old, he still resolutely went to Tianjin to repay the audience who loved him. And the audience's love for my father and our whole family really made us grateful. After each performance, many spectators stayed away for a long time, shouting their father's name, and his father returned to the scene again and again. At the end of the long return, the audience still had to say goodbye. "Take care of your body!" "Come back and see it!" These kind words of the audience are still in the ears today.

The performance was very exciting, and my father was very happy, but unfortunately there was no video material left due to its age.

On February 14, 1994, my father left us peacefully, completing the course of his 81-year life. As the eldest son, my heart is particularly sad. To this day, my father's serious acting, modesty, and dedication to art are still vividly remembered.

At that time, the show was busy, and I couldn't often go home to visit my parents, and every time I came home, my father had to go shopping for vegetables himself, and he had to send me to the station when I left. When my father was hospitalized, I went to the hospital to accompany the bed, because of the hard work, I often fell asleep next to my father at an inopportune time, and my father would never wake me up, and would gently cover me with a quilt... Today, I am also over seventy years old, and my gratitude and guilt for my parents are getting deeper. What I can do is to live every day, do everything well, and teach every student who really loves the art of Peking Opera according to my father's teachings.