Family of Centuries -- Li Shutong

Author: Tian Tao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Li Shutong (1880–1942), a music and art educator, calligrapher, theatrical activist, and pioneer of the New Culture Movement in China. Born into a family involved in salt and silver money trade in Tianjin, his ancestral home was in Zhejiang. His childhood name was Chengxi, his given name Wentao, and his courtesy name Shutong. In 1886, he received his early education. In 1901, he enrolled in the special class of Nanyang Public College. In 1905, he went to Tokyo, Japan, to study Western painting at the Tokyo Art School, also taking up music. In 1906, while in Japan, he edited the Music Monthly, and that winter, together with his classmate Zeng Xiaogu, he founded the earliest Chinese theatrical group, the Chunliu Society, in Tokyo. He later played the roles of the female lead in Madame Butterfly and Mrs. Emily Liu in the society's productions of Madame Butterfly and The Black Slave's Appeal, becoming one of the founders of Chinese theater. In 1911, he graduated and returned to Tianjin to teach. In 1912, he moved south to Shanghai to serve as an art editor for the Pacific Ocean Daily. In 1913, he compiled and edited the Baiyang magazine with his students and teachers. In 1914, he organized the Yeshi Society with like-minded individuals. In August 1918, he formally shaved his head and became a monk at the Tiger Running Temple in Hangzhou, taking the dharma name Yanyin and the sobriquet Hongyi. In 1942, he passed away in the Wenheng Elderly Care Home in Quanzhou, Fujian.