Ding Shi'e

Also known as Born Pan Yonghua · Early stage name Xiaoxiao Wan'e

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.