Bai Fengming

Bai Fengming of Beijing learned from his father Bai Xiaoshan and then from Liu Baoquan, Han Yonglu and his elder brother Bai Fengyan. He first sang in Liu Baoquan's manner, but his voice was broad and low, so Bai Fengyan, a former accompanist, shaped tunes for him drawing on Bai Yunpeng's singing; in the late 1920s the brothers created the Shao Bai ('Young Bai') school, known for the stark, tragic colour of its fan-note melodies, which Luo Yusheng later folded into her own Luo school. He excelled in Changban Po, Dandao Hui and Jigu Ma Cao, and pieces such as Qixing Deng, Jianwen Di Chujia and Luo Cheng Jiao Guan were his alone. After 1949 he led the Central Broadcasting Quyi Troupe. He died in 1980.