Performers › Stage Performers
Xun Huisheng
Peking opera huadan performer who began in Hebei bangzi as Bai Mudan and founded the Xun school, known for Hongniang
Mural of the event “Four Great Dan”, which this person took part in.
In the late Qing and early Republic Peking opera flourished in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond, and actors of the dan, the female roles, moved to the centre of the stage. In the 1920s a theatre column in the Beijing newspaper Shuntian Shibao proposed Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng as the Four Great Dan, and the title then caught on. Each of the four created new plays and refined singing and movement, founding the Mei, Cheng, Shang and Xun schools of dan acting. Mei led the tours abroad, with Qi Rushan and others writing plays and helping to plan the journeys: in 1930 he took his company to the United States, and from 21 February to 21 April 1935 he led it to the Soviet Union at its invitation and performed in Moscow and Leningrad.
Also known as Stage name Bai Mudan · Hao Liuxiang
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Xun Huisheng, styled Liuxiang, traced his family to Dongguang in Hebei and was born at Fucheng in Zhili in January 1900. Sold as a child to a bangzi troupe, he trained under the Hebei bangzi huadan Pang Qifa and appeared as Bai Mudan. In the early Republic he moved to Peking opera, studying with Li Shoushan and others and then with Wang Yaoqing, and after performing with Yu Shuyan he took the name Xun Huisheng. He excelled at lively, artless young women, with near-colloquial speech and finely observed acting that became the Xun school; his repertoire included Hongniang, The Two You Sisters, Yutang Chun and Chaitou Feng. A 1927 poll by the Beijing paper Shuntian shibao named him one of the Four Great Dan with Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu and Shang Xiaoyun. He died in Beijing in December 1968.
Life and times
Dates 1900 CE–1968 CE
- 1927Four Great DanTook partage 27
- 1927Four Great Dan Named in Beijingage 27