Performers › Stage Performers
Ma Shizeng
Cantonese opera actor from Shunde whose beggar-style singing became the Ma school, and whose rivalry with Xue Juexian shaped the 1930s stage
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 Bolu · Hao Jingcan
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Ma Shizeng, courtesy name Bolu, came from Shunde in Guangdong. He began training in Cantonese opera in Guangzhou in 1917 and then performed in Southeast Asia. Back in Hong Kong in 1923, he played the clown-lead in Bitter Phoenix, Pitied Oriole and developed a singing style of his own, the Ma style, also called the beggar style. He formed the Daluotian troupe in 1925, performed in San Francisco from 1931, and on returning to Hong Kong in 1933 founded the Taiping troupe, whose contest with Xue Juexian's company was known as the Xue-Ma rivalry. He moved to Guangzhou in 1955, became head of the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Academy in 1958, staged Guan Hanqing and Searching the Study, and died in Beijing in 1964.
Life and times
Dates 1900 CE–1964 CE