Li Qianghua

On May 13, the host Cao Kefan posted a message in the circle of friends, mourning the death of Li Qianghua, a famous Peking Opera performing artist and Chengpai Qingyi, at the age of 93. He wrote: "Mr. Li Qianghua, a great master of Cheng school, pursued the art of Cheng school all his life, and devoted himself to disseminating the art of Cheng school. He also taught Zhang Huoding, Shi Yihong and other juniors his performance experience. I wish teacher Qianghua a good journey! Brother Guan Dongtian, condolences!"

Cao Kefan mourns Li Qianghua

Li Qianghua studied Peking Opera since childhood and is a representative of the second generation of "Chengpai". His representative repertoires include "Suo Lin Sac", "Second Hall House Son", "A Dream of a Spring Girl", "The Mirror of the Dead Shu" and "The Story of Zhu Marks". In the past 50 years, he has contributed to the development of Chengpai art.
As the wife of Mr. Yu Zhenfei, a master of the Cheng School and a master of Beijing-Kunming, Li Qianghua has always been an admirable predecessor. Over the years, Li Qianghua has been reclusive, but she has always been concerned about the development of Jingkun art. On May 1, 2018, the Shanghai Peking Opera Theater will perform "Mei Shang Cheng Xun Shi Yihong" at the Shanghai Grand Theater. During the performance, he will learn to perform the famous Cheng school drama "A Dream of Spring" for the first time. Li Qianghua readily agrees. Served as one of the art directors. On the eve of the performance, Shi Yihong first told the opera by Sun Yuanxi, a famous Peking Opera performer, and specially visited Li Qianghua to ask for advice on the details of performance and singing.
This article was published on The Paper on April 28, 2018, and the old draft was republished to commemorate the famous Cheng School.

Li Qianghua (left) focused on listening to Shi Yihong's "Dream of Spring". Photo by Qi Qi, Shanghai Grand Theater

Li Qianghua got up early for this class of "Opening a Small Stove", and the old artist in red looked particularly energetic. Within more than an hour, Shi Yihong performed "A Dream of Spring" in front of Teacher Li. And Li Qianghua accompanies the show while teaching the play. All the gongs and drums, crossing doors and other supporting characters' melodies and words in this play are accompanied. Everyone present was amazed that she was able to master all the plays so thoroughly. She said slowly and warmly, "This play is really familiar."
Li Qianghua has performed "Dream of Spring" for 62 years. The last time she performed "Dream of Spring" was in 2011 to commemorate Yu Zhenfei's 109th birthday. Since then, due to the inconvenience of legs and feet, it has rarely been on the stage. In the interval between the "Kai Xiaozao" drama, Li Qianghua talked about the Cheng School art in her heart.
In the current Peking Opera stage, "Suo Lin Sac" is the most performed play in the Cheng School's repertoire, among which the sentence "Storm outside the Spring and Autumn Pavilion" is a must for all Cheng School actors. However, Li Qianghua once said, "I have a soft spot for "A Dream of Spring", which is also "the play that she performed the most in her life and attached great importance to in all aspects, and it is also a play of great significance to me."
"In the play, Zhang's dream of reuniting with her husband [26] is the most wonderful aria, which contains her love and concern for her husband, the joy and joy of the reunion, a little bit of coquettish hatred, and full of endless thoughts. It draws lessons from Kunqu Opera, and every movement is exquisite and has a large range of movements." Li Qianghua once introduced "A Dream of Spring" in the oral history of his own Peking Opera heritage.

Cheng Yanqiu (left) and Yu Zhenfei

When Cheng Yanqiu created "The Dream of Spring", he invited Yu Zhenfei, a master of Beijing-Kunming, to co-create, and absorbed a lot of body movements from the Kunqu Opera "The Peony Pavilion: A Dream". Li Qianghua later became Yu Zhenfei's wife.
Li Qianghua began to perform on stage in 1948 one year after learning "Dream of the Spring Boudoir" from Cheng Yanqiu's pianist Zhou Changhua. By 2011, to commemorate the 109th anniversary of Yu Zhenfei's birth, he had performed the play for a total of 62 years.
Also in 2011, Shi Yihong performed Chengpai's representative work "Suo Lin Sac" for the first time across genres. Li Qianghua, while affirming her attempt, encouraged Shi Yihong to "learn the "Dream of Spring Girl".
After a "Xiaozao" class, Li Qianghua and the audience talked about the art of the Cheng School and said with emotion: "Mr. Cheng's plays are all very profound. His singing voice, eyes, and figure all contain characters. There are dramas in these things of him, otherwise how can it be charming?"
Speaking of the fact that there are many Cheng School descendants in the current Peking Opera circle, Li Qianghua said: "Actually, it is not a matter of three days or two days to learn the Cheng School. It has to start from in-depth singing experience. There is one hobby, and another experience. Mr. Cheng You have always been involved in the drama yourself, and you have to be involved in singing, and only when you are involved in the drama can you bring the audience into the drama.”
She couldn't help but sighed that Cheng's art was exquisite and profound in many aspects: "For example, Mr. Cheng can sing a lot of traditional operas, some of which have various genres, but Mr. Cheng's singing is different from others. Another example is "Wu Jia" "Po", the 'into the kiln' part, is really beautiful on the body. It's a pity that not many people can learn it."
"Aren't many of Mr. Cheng's stuff lost now?" Someone asked during the banquet.
The old lady replied gently with a smile: "What can be done then?"

Li Qianghua in Shanghai in 1947

"There are not as many people who love learning now, and many of them are still learning fur." When asked what she thought of Shi Yihong, Li Qianghua gestured and smiled, "When she was so small, I looked at her. Come to play. She works hard and is a smart kid."
Li Qianghua recalled the hardships of his generation when he learned to play, but he felt the happiness of seeing too many great masters in those days. In 1952, Cheng Yanqiu performed 19 consecutive performances of "Tears of the Barren Mountain" in Shanghai, and Li Qianghua watched 17 consecutive performances. "Mr. Cheng has a very bad temper. He must act in so many scenes, but it really broke my joy. I watched 17 scenes, and now I think about it, I am really happy."