Performers › Stage Performers
Ding Shi'e
Shanghai opera actress, born Pan Yonghua, founder of the Ding school of Huju; known for The Arhat Coin, Thunderstorm and Sparks Amid the Reeds
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 Born Pan Yonghua · Early stage name Xiaoxiao Wan'e
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Ding Shi'e, born Pan Yonghua in Hongkou, Shanghai, in November 1923 to a family from Shuanglin in Wuxing, Zhejiang, became at nine a pupil of the shenqu singer Ding Wan'e, learning huadan, zhengdan and laodan roles; her teacher gave her the stage name Ding Shi'e, though she first appeared as Xiaoxiao Wan'e. Her rich, varied singing became the Ding school of Huju, and her roles included Xiao Fei'e in The Arhat Coin, Lin Peifen in Chicken Feathers Fly to Heaven, Fanyi in Thunderstorm and Sister A Qing in Sparks Amid the Reeds. She won a first-class acting award at the 1954 East China opera festival, and when the Shanghai Huju Theatre was founded in 1982 she became its first director. She died in Shanghai in July 1988.
Life and times
Dates 1923 CE–1988 CE