Performers › Stage Performers
Ma Lianliang
Hui Peking opera laosheng actor from Beijing, trained in the Xilian Cheng troupe, who led the Fufeng She company and founded the Ma school
Backstage of a theatre troupe, an open trunk spills embroidered red and blue robes, one worked with a phoenix, beneath a jewelled headdress with long plumes; a mirror stand, a stool and a row of painted drums stand beside it, with a red curtain hanging at the right.
Also known as Zi Wenru
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Ma Lianliang, courtesy name Wenru, a Hui from Beijing, was born in 1901. At nine he entered the Xilian Cheng training troupe, later renamed Fulian Cheng, studying martial roles under Ru Laiqing and then laosheng under Ye Chunshan and Xiao Changhua, while modelling his singing on Tan Xinpei and Jia Honglin. After graduating he formed and led his own company, the Fufeng She, and his easy, flowing singing and carefully weighted speech became the Ma school, which held the stage from the 1920s into the 1960s; he and Zhou Xinfang of Shanghai were paired as 'Qi of the South, Ma of the North'. His repertoire included Borrowing the East Wind, Ganlu Temple, Qingfeng Pavilion and The Orphan of Zhao. He died in Beijing in December 1966.
Life and times
Dates 1901 CE–1966 CE