Li Qingshan

Also known as Stage name Da Jinxiangyu · Stage name Da Jiqi

Li Qingshan, whose family came from Laiyang, Shandong, was born in Shulan, Jilin. At fifteen he became a pupil of the errenzhuan performer Zhang Xiangchen and was known by eighteen, first singing the female role as Da Jinxiangyu and, after thirty, the clown role as Da Jiqi. He recalled that when he learned The Blue Bridge around 1920 it had some 300 lines, and that singing it with Guo Wenbao and others it grew to more than 1,700. In 1956 he joined the Northeast Local Opera Troupe in Changchun and from 1959 taught at the Jilin Provincial Opera School, training pupils and editing traditional pieces; Wang Zhaoyi recorded his talks on the art in several books. He died at home in Changchun in the spring of 1978.