Writers › Writer / Poet
Yan Su
Playwright and lyricist who wrote the operas Jiang Jie and Daughter of the Party and the lyrics of Which Way Lies the Road, Flowers in the Mist and Singing Opera Masks.
Mural of the cultural record “National Opera”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Born Yan Zhiyang
Yan Su, born Yan Zhiyang in Baoding, Hebei, in 1930, spent his career writing opera libretti and song lyrics. His opera Jiang Jie premiered in 1964 and stayed in the repertoire for decades, and he also wrote the opera Daughter of the Party. His lyrics, often drawing on traditional opera, include Which Way Lies the Road, the theme of the television Journey to the West, as well as Flowers in the Mist, Singing Opera Masks and Big-Bowl Tea at Qianmen, all widely sung. He died in Beijing in 2016 at the age of eighty-six.
Life and times
Dates 1930 CE–2016 CE