Performers › Stage Performers
Shi Xiaoying
Huju actress and founder of the Shi school, called 'the dan of a hundred faces', known for Fifth Aunt in The Arhat Coin and the shrewish mother-in-law in Abida
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 surname Pan
- Roles
- Stage Performers
Shi Xiaoying, born into a family named Pan in the Nanshi district of Shanghai in 1918, was adopted at nine by a couple of shenqu performers, took their surname Shi and trained under them. Early on she was known for tragic heroines, leading in modern-dress plays such as The Rebellious Woman, The Storm and Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage, and was called 'the dan of a hundred faces'. In 1952 she won a first-class acting award at the first national opera festival as Fifth Aunt in The Arhat Coin, and thereafter turned to older and comic women, among them the shrewish mother-in-law in Abida, Lu Ma in Thunderstorm and Old Mother Sha in Sparks Amid the Reeds. Her soft, clear singing became the Shi school of Huju. She died in 1989.
Life and times
Dates 1918 CE–1989 CE