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Ou Laizhu
Singer of Jietoufen in Yuanshan, Yilan, known as Gezai Zhu, who by tradition turned seven-syllable folk songs into sung stories and is counted among the founders of Taiwanese opera
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 Known as Gezai Zhu · Also A Zhu
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Ou Laizhu, known as Gezai Zhu, is said to have come from Jietoufen in Yuanshan, Yilan, Taiwan. The Taiwan Provincial Gazetteer records a singer of Jietoufen called Gezai Zhu, surname unknown, famed for his singing, who reworked mountain songs into lyrics with a plot; the Yilan County Gazetteer calls him A Zhu. Local tradition later identified him as Ou Laizhu and holds that he learned from Maozai Yuan and turned seven-syllable folk tunes into sung stories for one or two performers, an early form of Taiwanese opera. Other accounts name Chen Gaoli or Maozai Yuan as the founder. Yilan tradition says he sang beneath the big tree (Dashugong) at Jietoufen, which the county registered as a cultural landscape in 2014.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown (one account gives 1871–1920); said to have been active in the early 20th century