Li Zhonglin

Li Zhonglin, born in 1933, joined a performing troupe as a boy and graduated from the choreography class of the Beijing Dance School in 1957. With Huang Boshou he choreographed Baolian Deng (The Lotus Lantern), a full-length national dance drama based on the tale of splitting the mountain to rescue a mother, premiered by the Central Experimental Opera Theatre in 1957. In 1959 he co-choreographed the Shanghai Opera and Dance Drama Theatre's Xiaodao Hui (The Small Sword Society), dancing the role of the Qing intendant Wu Jianzhang; the work later received a 20th-century classic award. He served as choreographer and deputy director of the Shanghai Opera and Dance Drama Theatre and also created Fengming Qishan and Mulan Piaoxiang. He died of illness in Shanghai on 9 February 2018, aged eighty-four.