A life of Peking Opera and lantern riddles
By Zhu Yuexia and Shen Li |
April 30, 2013, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SUN Wenrong, 69, a native of Rugao City in Shanghai's neighboring Jiangsu Province, has moved to Jianghua neighborhood in Jiading's Jiangqiao Town with his daughter when she landed a job in Shanghai after graduating from college.
When Sun was very young, his father liked Peking Opera very much and always took him to watch performances.
On one occasion, the usually quiet boy suddenly started to sing a song called "Policy and strategy is the life of the Party," a popular song at that time. Such a strong voice for one so young surprised his father.
When Sun was 19, Sun realized his dream to enter the Rugao City's Puppet Peking Opera Troupe and from that time on, his life became inseparable from Peking Opera.
Opera artist
Sun was a hualian (the male with the painted face), a major role in the Peking Opera. He always kept his father's teaching in mind that there was no shortcut in the way to be an artist. Sun would repeatedly practice his roles, plots, lyrics and lines, word by word, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph.
In such a way, he successful performed the role of Li Yongqi in "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," the role of Hatoyama in "The Red Lantern" and the role of Li Zhitian in the "Song of the Dragon River." His resonant voice and vivid performance made audience indulged.
After retirement, Sun has much more spare time but he does not take a rest and Peking Opera is now his hobby as he practices it everyday. Having settled down in Jiangqiao Town he taught local Peking opera fans how to sing and perform the art and even organized performances.
His aria of the Peking Opera "Looking at today's splendid World Expo" won the first prize in the program "Splendid Old Friends" on Shanghai TV, a popular program for senior residents. His aria of Peking Opera "Our own troops came to the front" won the silver prize at the fourth "Hometown Tunes" traditional opera contest in Shanghai.
Riddle maker
Besides Peking Opera, Sun has another hobby: Researching and creating lantern riddles. At his home, his desk, sofa, table and nightstand are covered with files on lantern riddles. When he encounters a good article on lantern riddles, he becomes so engross and forgets to take meals. Even when sleeping in bed, he would get up immediately and note it down whenever inspiration comes to him.
Since the 1980s, he has created more than 3,000 lantern riddles and related articles, published in more than 20 newspapers including the Yangtze Evening Post, Xinmin Evening News, Beijing Evening News, Nanfang Daily and Chinese Riddle Newspaper. His riddles were collected in the "Chinese Contemporary Lantern Riddle Artist Dictionary," "Chinese Lantern Riddle Dictionary," "Chinese Lantern Riddle Thesaurus" and "Chinese Lantern Riddle Almanac."
When Sun was very young, his father liked Peking Opera very much and always took him to watch performances.
On one occasion, the usually quiet boy suddenly started to sing a song called "Policy and strategy is the life of the Party," a popular song at that time. Such a strong voice for one so young surprised his father.
When Sun was 19, Sun realized his dream to enter the Rugao City's Puppet Peking Opera Troupe and from that time on, his life became inseparable from Peking Opera.
Opera artist
Sun was a hualian (the male with the painted face), a major role in the Peking Opera. He always kept his father's teaching in mind that there was no shortcut in the way to be an artist. Sun would repeatedly practice his roles, plots, lyrics and lines, word by word, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph.
In such a way, he successful performed the role of Li Yongqi in "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," the role of Hatoyama in "The Red Lantern" and the role of Li Zhitian in the "Song of the Dragon River." His resonant voice and vivid performance made audience indulged.
After retirement, Sun has much more spare time but he does not take a rest and Peking Opera is now his hobby as he practices it everyday. Having settled down in Jiangqiao Town he taught local Peking opera fans how to sing and perform the art and even organized performances.
His aria of the Peking Opera "Looking at today's splendid World Expo" won the first prize in the program "Splendid Old Friends" on Shanghai TV, a popular program for senior residents. His aria of Peking Opera "Our own troops came to the front" won the silver prize at the fourth "Hometown Tunes" traditional opera contest in Shanghai.
Riddle maker
Besides Peking Opera, Sun has another hobby: Researching and creating lantern riddles. At his home, his desk, sofa, table and nightstand are covered with files on lantern riddles. When he encounters a good article on lantern riddles, he becomes so engross and forgets to take meals. Even when sleeping in bed, he would get up immediately and note it down whenever inspiration comes to him.
Since the 1980s, he has created more than 3,000 lantern riddles and related articles, published in more than 20 newspapers including the Yangtze Evening Post, Xinmin Evening News, Beijing Evening News, Nanfang Daily and Chinese Riddle Newspaper. His riddles were collected in the "Chinese Contemporary Lantern Riddle Artist Dictionary," "Chinese Lantern Riddle Dictionary," "Chinese Lantern Riddle Thesaurus" and "Chinese Lantern Riddle Almanac."
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