Performers › Dramatists and Directors
Shi Linghe
Playwright and director, born Shi Lianxue, who built Gan opera from the Raohe and Xinhe stage traditions in the early 1950s and adapted The Return of the Soul, The Pearl and The West Chamber for it
In a workshop, one person sits with their back turned at a long table, pointing a thin rod at a model stage with painted scenery; scripts bound in cord and a brush pot lie in the foreground, a ring of white dots marks the floor, and two drums and hanging cloths stand at the right.
Also known as Born Shi Lianxue · Zi Shimin
Shi Linghe, born Shi Lianxue with the courtesy name Shimin, came from Leping in Jiangxi. From 1929 he worked with the Shanghai Art Theatre and began writing spoken drama, including Black Hell, and during the war against Japan he wrote plays such as The Lone Army in a Sea of Fire and Song of the Night. In 1950 he visited veteran Raohe opera performers in Jingdezhen, recorded their scripts and melodies and gathered actors into an experimental troupe; in 1951 the Raohe and Xinhe traditions were given the name Gan opera. He then adapted Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion as the Yiyang-tune Return of the Soul, and also The Pearl and a Qingyang-tune West Chamber; the first two were filmed, and the last became known as 'Shi's West Chamber'. He died in 1995.
Life and times
Dates 1906 CE–1995 CE