Henan Opera Masters Series (Qu Opera) – Famous Plays and Famous Segments by Yan Lipin: Henan Opera Masters Series

Author: Guo Guangyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-28
Features: Yan Lipin (1922—1996), originally named Yan Guirong, was a renowned Yuyi opera performance artist. She was from Fengqiu County, Henan Province. Yan Lipin grew up in poverty, and her mother sent her to the Yong'an Stage in Kaifeng to study opera, where she was adopted as a disciple by the famous Yuyi opera artists Yang Jinyu and Ma Shuangzhi. Due to her exceptional talent and diligent study, she was deeply loved by her teachers. After a year, she made her stage debut in The Golden Branch (portraying the princess Kaiping), and despite her singing still being somewhat raw, her earnest performance won the audience's admiration. Within three years, she had gained a certain influence in Kaifeng. Because she was small but possessed exquisite skills, the audience affectionately called her "Little Maiden." However, the newly successful Yan Lipin was fully aware of the challenges of the artistic path and that any carelessness could lead to failure. To refine her skills, she never relaxed no matter the circumstances, from the 1930s to the early 1940s, she gradually grew from a "Little Maiden" into a versatile actress with a wide range of roles, significant influence, beautiful appearance, and a bright, round voice.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Yan Lipin, like other artists, suffered persecution from the Japanese invaders and traitors. To resist the behavior of the invaders and local tyrants who treated artists as mere playthings, she cut off her long hair, moved to remote rural areas, and refused to perform in the city for the invaders, even if it meant eating coarse grain and enduring hunger. After the war of resistance ended, although Yan Lipin resumed her performances and continued to be warmly welcomed by audiences across Henan, she grew increasingly disgusted with the prevailing "flattery" culture in society. She said, "I would rather be poor and chaste than fame-stained and corrupt. Ten thousand taels of gold or silver cannot make me sell my dignity." To reject frequent private performances and banquets, she gave up meat and fish, adopting a vegetarian diet from then on.
Yan Lipin not only feared no power and did not bow to evil forces, demonstrating the integrity of a righteous artist, but she was also strict with herself in her art, refusing to follow the crowd or sacrifice her principles for temporary fame. Starting in the 1940s, she consciously "purified" some of the plays she performed. She set for herself three rules: "do not perform vulgar plays," "do not sing obscene words," and "do not perform actions that corrupt public morals." For every play she performed, she would make every effort (sometimes with the help of educated and knowledgeable people) to revise and refine it before going on stage. In doing so, she made friends with many local celebrities and scholars in various places, humbly seeking their advice. This not only enriched her literary knowledge but also allowed these people to offer sincere opinions on her performances, greatly benefiting her when revising scripts. She was not only a skilled actress but also had high moral standards, earning her great respect among the audience. The audience presented her with countless poems, flags, and inscribed plaques, but what she cherished most was the calligraphy given to her during a performance in Fugou, which read "Pure Character, Exquisite Art." Yan Lipin believed this was the audience's most sincere hope for her, and she changed her name from Guirong to Lipin, taking the meaning "to establish character before establishing a career, and to establish character before refining one's virtues." From then on, she performed across Henan under the name Yan Lipin, playing Cui Yingying in The West Chamber.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yan Lipin joined the Shangqiu People's Yuyi Troupe and performed in Nanjing, Shanghai, and other places. Her unique artistic style as a Yuyi opera actress received praise from people from all walks of life. In early 1954, Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang took Yan Lipin and Pingju actress Xin Fengxia as his disciples, marking the first time Mei Lanfang took regional opera actors as apprentices. After watching Yan Lipin perform multiple times, Mei Lanfang said, "Her facial expressions change rapidly, and her performances are delicate—rare among regional opera actresses in the role of a young lady." Under Mei Lanfang's guidance, Yan Lipin began specializing in the role of a young lady and studied and organized plays for the Yuyi opera young lady role. Under Mei Lanfang's tutelage, Yan Lipin made a new leap in her performance, makeup, and singing. To expand the repertoire of the Yuyi opera young lady role, she also adapted and performed plays such as The Jade Hairpin and The Wife Who Pursues Her Husband.
In 1955, Yan Lipin was transferred from Shangqiu to the Luoyang Yuyi Opera Troupe No. 2. In 1957, her straightforward nature led to her being wrongfully labeled a rightist, and she was not restored to her performing rights until 1958, when she was transferred to the Xinyang Yuyi Opera Troupe. During her years in Xinyang, she reformed the play Qin Xuemei, exploring new approaches in the script, performance, singing methods, and vocal design. It can be said that at this time, she began to develop an artistic style distinct from others.
During the Cultural Revolution, Yan Lipin was branded as a "black line figure" and suffered great persecution, losing her right to perform for ten years until the "Gang of Four" was overthrown. Upon returning to the stage, Yan Lipin, with her profound artistic skills and unwavering pursuit of art even in adversity, caused a sensation upon her debut. Her representative works such as Qin Xuemei, The Boat Concealed, and The West Chamber were met with rave reviews, and many long-time audiences were deeply moved upon seeing her again. Some called her "a white-haired maiden with eternal youth; like a lotus emerging from water, a plum blossom blooming anew."
Yan Lipin's artistic style stood alone among the various schools of Yuyi opera actresses, with a refined charm that captivated the audience. In her brilliant performances in representative works such as The Turtle Mountain, Qin Xuemei, and The Jade Hairpin, we can see a key feature of her art: "exquisite detail," which was rare in both Yuyi opera and regional opera. This "exquisite detail" can be attributed to her personal tutelage under Mei Lanfang. When learning from Mei Lanfang, Yan Lipin did not focus solely on external performance techniques but emphasized mastering Mei Lanfang's artistic essence. As a result, her works were imbued with the spirit of Mei Lanfang's Peking Opera style. In vocal performance, emotional expression, and other aspects, Yan Lipin skillfully blended the essence of Mei Lanfang's art with Yuyi opera, making her performances not only retain the characteristics of Yuyi opera but also brought new developments to the performance of the young lady role, grounded in "exquisite detail."
In vocal performance, Yan's style maintained the characteristic of "exquisite detail," with each line of singing, every phoneme, and even individual notes carefully refined. During performances, she paid close attention to vocal delivery and the clarity of meaning, with great variation in intensity and exceptional skill in vocal color, achieving a balance of brightness and depth. Additionally, she had great mastery in spoken dialogue. In Qin Xuemei, her recitation of the "eulogy," with over forty lines, was perfectly timed in rhythm and emotionally resonant, conveying such depth of sorrow that it moved the audience to tears.
In performance, Yan Lipin emphasized starting from the character, meticulously studying them before designing detailed performance routines. Her portrayal of Hu Fenglian in The Boat Concealed is considered a masterpiece of Yan's art. Especially in the scene where she "receives the cup," her performance was truly breathtaking. In this scene, Yan Lipin used different body movements, expressions, and varied finger gestures to multi-layeredly portray the shyness of the young woman Hu Fenglian and her specific mindset in that environment. The final movement, where Hu Fenglian turns around and extends her hand for Tian Yuchuan to place the butterfly cup in it, demonstrated the cleverness and appropriateness of Yan's artistic pursuit.
Starting in the 1960s, Yan Lipin devoted herself to nurturing the next generation of artists. After the Cultural Revolution, she dedicated much effort to taking disciples and passing on her skills, with her students spreading across many provinces and regions in China.