Art constellation: Hua Shulan

Author: Wang Fengxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Hu Shulan is not only a nationally renowned Ping Opera performing artist who uniquely created the Hu School of performance art, but also an exceptional Ping Opera art educator who extensively accepted disciples and imparted skills, truly pouring her heart into it. Over her more than 60-year artistic career, Hu Shulan performed in over 200 plays and held more than 10,000 public performances, making outstanding contributions to the development of Ping Opera in China. Her representative works, such as The Tea Bottle Plan, Xie Yaoquan, Dai Nuo, Half a Scissors, Sentinel Under the Neon Lights, and The Shepherd's Scroll, are testaments to her relentless pursuit of artistic perfection. Many of her excellent arias were recorded on phonograph records, and some classic plays were videotaped and recorded for preservation and dissemination. Hu Shulan and her dramatic art are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, household names. Not only do the people in Northeast China love her plays, but those in North China, Inner Mongolia, and even overseas Chinese are also very eager to watch her performances. Art Constellation – Hu Shulan is a long narrative biography that comprehensively portrays and showcases the artistic career of the renowned contemporary Ping Opera performing artist Hu Shulan. The author dedicates considerable effort to closely linking Hu Shulan with the profound social and historical context, from her birth in 1929 to her receiving the "China Outstanding Talent" Cup award in 2003.
We first see the protagonist, Hu Shulan, placed in the period of the Anti-Japanese War. At the age of two, the September 18th Incident of 1931 occurred, and while depicting her difficult life as the daughter of a (classical Chinese opera) family, the author exposes how the war of Japanese imperialist aggression spread from Northeast China to North China. Soon after, by 1937, the July 7th Incident broke out, marking the full-scale outbreak of the Chinese people's resistance against Japan. Under these circumstances, at the age of eight, Hu Shulan followed her mother, Liu Yufang, on the road, learning and performing while traveling. Next, Hu Shulan enters the period of the Liberation War. Her Ping Opera performance art begins to bloom like a flower bud. Her combined martial and literary play Bao Longshan, performed at Tianqian Bridge in Beijing, gained fame in the capital, marking the beginning of her lifelong career as a leading actress.
Subsequently, Hu Shulan enters the era of the founding of the People's Republic of China. She performed modern plays successively in Beijing and Tianjin. Then comes the period of the Korean War. Hu Shulan held numerous charity performances to donate planes and cannons and traveled to North Korea to comfort the Chinese People's Volunteers. Finally, she enters the socialist period. This was a significant era in Hu Shulan's artistic career, naturally including the Cultural Revolution and the Reform and Opening Up. Against the vast historical backdrop spanning nearly 75 years, through complex social conflicts and interpersonal entanglements, the author portrays Hu Shulan and how she created the Hu School of art, as well as her glorious image of loving the party, the country, and the people. At the same time, it also depicts the figures in the opera art world, particularly her disciples.
The book presents a broad historical panorama, where the author intricately weaves together conflicts between career and love, family and career, setbacks and pursuits, pain and joy, daily life and social transformation, profoundly revealing the arduous and winding paths of Hu Shulan and her many disciples and students through the historical process. This long narrative biography vividly brings to life the artist Hu Shulan, a life filled with hardships, exceptional talent and virtue, and a touch of legend.