Performers › Dramatists and Directors

Cheng Zhaocai

Lianhualuo performer from Luannan who turned a street ballad form into the Ping opera of Tangshan and wrote Yang Sanjie Goes to Court

Also known as Zi Jiesan · Donglaishun (stage name)

Cheng Zhaocai, courtesy name Jiesan and stage name Donglaishun, came from a poor family in Luannan, Hebei, and earned his living singing lianhualuo ballads. Late in the Qing he and fellow performers formed the Qingchun troupe, which from about 1909 played at the Yongsheng teahouse in Tangshan. Borrowing the band and banhu fiddle of Hebei bangzi, they replaced third-person narration with actors playing roles in the first person, creating the form first called Tangshan laozi and later Ping opera. Around 1915 he helped found the Jingshi troupe. Among the many plays he wrote or adapted are Yang Sanjie Goes to Court, based on a real 1918 case in Luan county, and The Matchmaker Flower, drawn from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

Life and times

  1. 1874 CEBornQingRepublican Era
  2. 1929 CEDied

Works

  1. Stage · Plays2
    1. Third Sister Yang Files a Lawsuit1919Cheng Zhaocai's Ping opera of 1919, drawn from a real case of 1918 and regarded as the form's first lasting classic
    2. Flowers as MatchmakerAround 1919 (written by Cheng Zhaocai)Written by Cheng Zhaocai from a Strange Tales story and filmed in 1963 with Xin Fengxia in the lead