Wang Wanqing

Wang Wanqing, a Yangzhou native, sang female roles in Yangzhou qingqu. At eleven he studied Kunqu with his father Wang Bicheng, switching three years later to qingqu and also learning erhu and pipa. At twenty he joined the Nanju qingqu circle, singing with senior masters and amateurs, and drew on many models to form his own Wang school, admired in pieces such as Daiyu Beiqiu. Between 1931 and 1935 Shanghai record companies issued his discs, including Hei Mudan and Jiuqiang Shiba Diao. From 1961 he was deputy head of the Jiangsu Quyi Troupe and collected and studied qingqu material, writing in later life on the art of qingqu singing and recitation; his last pupil was Tao Meifang. He died in 1967.