Performers › Dramatists and Directors
Wen Mu
Shanghai opera playwright from Songjiang, a former shenqu performer, co-writer of Luohan Coin and writer of Sparks Amid the Reeds.
In a workshop, one person sits with their back turned at a long table, pointing a thin rod at a model stage with painted scenery; scripts bound in cord and a brush pot lie in the foreground, a ring of white dots marks the floor, and two drums and hanging cloths stand at the right.
Also known as Wang Ruixin · Wang Wenjue
Wen Mu, born Wang Ruixin and also known as Wang Wenjue, came from Songjiang near Shanghai and was born in 1919. A keen follower of shenqu as a boy, in 1936 he became a pupil of the shenqu performer Wang Yafang and toured the Shanghai outskirts and southern Jiangsu. In 1948 he joined the Shangyi Shanghai Opera Troupe as an actor, began writing for it the next year under the pen name Wen Mu, and from 1953 was a full-time playwright of the Shanghai People's Shanghai Opera Troupe. In 1952 he co-wrote Luohan Coin with Zong Hua and Xing Zhi, and in 1959 he wrote Sparks Amid the Reeds, premiered the following year. His other plays include Chicken Feathers Fly to the Sky. He died in 1995.
Life and times
Dates 1919–1995