Ouyang Yuqian

Also known as Born Ouyang Liyuan · Hao Nanjie · Stage name Liansheng

Ouyang Yuqian, born Ouyang Liyuan in Liuyang, Hunan, acted in early civilized drama from 1907 and became a Peking opera performer in 1915, famed for Dream of the Red Chamber plays such as Daiyu Burns Her Poems; he also wrote and staged the opera Pan Jinlian, wrote the spoken dramas Behind the Screen and A Rickshaw Man's Family, worked as a film writer and director on pictures such as Three Years Later and Mulan Joins the Army, and wrote the historical play Li Xiucheng, the Loyal Prince. In 1950 he became founding president of the Central Academy of Drama, invited Choi Seung-hee, Wu Xiaobang and others to teach, and worked to distil a classical dance from opera movement; that year he and Dai Ailian created the dance drama Dove of Peace, and in later years he wrote a study of Tang dance. He died in Beijing in September 1962.