Performers › Stage Performers
Wei Changsheng
Sichuan-born qinqiang female-role actor whose 1779 Beijing run in Rolling in the Tower set popular opera against Kunqu
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 Wanqing · Wei San
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Wei Changsheng, courtesy name Wanqing and called Wei San as the third son, came from a poor family in Jintang, Sichuan, and went to Xi'an as a boy to learn qinqiang, specialising in female roles. In 1779 he came to Beijing with the Shuangqing troupe, and his coquettish role in Rolling in the Tower drew such crowds that, according to Wu Changyuan's Little Register of Swallows and Orchids, the six leading Kunqu companies were left almost empty. The rivalry came to be called the contest between the popular and the refined. Tradition credits him with spreading the pasted side-locks used in female-role make-up. He later performed in Yangzhou and Suzhou, and in 1802 he died backstage in Beijing after playing in Carrying the Child into the Mansion.
Life and times
Dates c. 1744 CE–1802 CE