Art Constellation Flower Shulan

Author: Wang Fengxiang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Hua Shulan is not only a nationally renowned Pingju performance artist who uniquely created the Hua School of performance art, but also an exceptional Pingju art educator who widely accepted disciples and imparted skills, dedicating her heart and soul to it. Over her six decades of artistic career, Hua Shulan performed in over 200 plays and gave more than 10,000 public performances, making outstanding contributions to the development of Pingju in China. Her representative works such as The Tea Pot 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 audio-recorded for preservation and dissemination. Hua Shulan and her dramatic art are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, household names across the nation. Not only do the people in Northeast China love her plays, but also those in North China, Inner Mongolia, and even overseas Chinese communities are very eager to watch her performances. Art Star – Hua Shulan is a long narrative biography that comprehensively portrays and showcases the artistic career of the renowned contemporary Pingju performance artist, Hua Shulan. The author meticulously connects Hua Shulan to the profound social and historical context, tracing her life from her birth in 1929 to her receiving the "China Outstanding Talent" Cup award in 2003.
We first see the protagonist, Hua Shulan, placed in the period of the Anti-Japanese War. At the age of two, the September 18th Incident of 1931 occurred, and as the author depicts her difficult life in a (a family), the war of Japanese imperialist aggression spreads from Northeast China to North China. Soon after, by 1937, the Lugu Bridge Incident broke out, marking the full-scale resistance of the Chinese people. Under these circumstances, at the age of eight, Hua Shulan followed her mother, Liu Yufang, on the road, learning and performing while traveling. Next, Hua Shulan enters the period of the Liberation War. Her Pingju performance art begins to bloom like a flower bud. The martial and civil play Bao Longshan, performed at Tianqian Bridge in Beijing, gains fame in the capital, marking the beginning of her career as a leading actress. After that, Hua Shulan embraces the era of the founding of New China. She successively performs modern plays in Beijing and Tianjin. Then comes the period of the Korean War of Resistance. Hua Shulan holds numerous charity performances to donate planes and cannons and travels to North Korea to comfort the Chinese People's Volunteers. Finally, it is the socialist period. This is a significant era in Hua Shulan's artistic career, naturally including the Cultural Revolution and the Reform and Opening Up. Against the vast historical backdrop spanning nearly seventy-five years, through complex social conflicts and interpersonal entanglements, the author portrays Hua Shulan and how she created the Hua 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 numerous figures in the opera 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, suffering and joy, daily life and social transformation, profoundly revealing the arduous and winding paths traversed by Hua Shulan and her many disciples and students in the course of history. This long narrative biography vividly brings to life the artist, Hua Shulan, a life filled with hardships, exceptional talent and virtue, and a touch of legend.