Performer bridges tradition with modernity by conducting bold experiments to captivate today's audiences, Zhang Kun reports.

Throughout her illustrious career, 53-year-old Shanghai native Shi Yihong has remained dedicated to the timeless art of Peking Opera, also known as Jingju. Regaled as a diva singer, she is celebrated for her masterful performances.

Not only does she uphold the values of this ancient art form, but the most prominent woman in Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company skillfully bridges the gap between tradition and modernity while attempting bold experiments to captivate contemporary audiences.

Shi is a Peking Opera performer of female characters portrayed in Mei Lanfang style. Born in Shanghai in 1972, she joined the company in 1990, winning many national awards.

While she is known nationwide for her performances in classical repertoire, Shi is recognized for performing different Peking Opera styles. She even made a Kunqu Opera production in 2013. She had French novelist Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris adapted into a Peking Opera production in 2008, and played the role of Esmeralda. In 2021, she adapted the 1990s martial arts movie New Dragon Gate Inn into a Peking Opera.

Farewell My Concubine, one of the most celebrated Peking Opera repertoires, was created by Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) and Yang Xiaolou (1878-1938) in the 1920s. It tells the story of Xiang Yu, a warlord in the 3rd century BC, and features the evening before his final battle for the throne, which he has no chance of winning. Shi plays the heroine Yuji, a beloved consort of Xiang, who dies by suicide as a gesture of devotion and unwavering loyalty to her hero.

Today, Farewell My Concubine is widely popular as a representative piece of Mei Lanfang-style Peking Opera recognized for its arias and the heroine's sword dance. Shi has performed the opera for decades, though her performance is not a faithful copy of Mei's version.

"I first learned the opera from Maestro Zhang Meijuan, then picked some characteristics and details I found in other artists' performances. I then put together my own version based on Maestro Mei's interpretation," she says.

Shi performed in the opening shows for the classic Chinese opera series at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center this year, which has hosted the annual traditional Chinese opera showcase for 15 years. The actress gave sold-out performances of Farewell My Concubine on March 14 and The Unicorn Purse on Saturday.

"You could feel her suffering by the way she looks at him. When she dances with the swords, your heartbeat speeds up with the drumbeat. Audiences were so overwhelmed by her performance that they swarmed the stage for the ovation," audience member Cai Xin wrote on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, a Chinese social media platform, after seeing Shi's performance on March 14.

A story about war and love, the opera appeals to audiences worldwide. In 2017, Shi performed it with Shang Changrong as Xiang at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University in the United States.

Encouraged by the audiences' enthusiastic response, the East Asian Studies department at Princeton University set up an annual project, inviting her and her colleagues from the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company to introduce Peking Opera to US students. The following winter, a group of students from Princeton visited and studied for two weeks at the company.

In the past few years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was held online. In January, Shi finally made her second visit to Princeton. "We taught them to sing the arias, dance with short spears, and paint their faces for different characters. The students enjoyed it and learned very quickly," she tells China Daily. It gave her great joy to see the foreign students present a Peking Opera show on campus after studying for just two weeks.

Shi went on to perform and talk about Peking Opera at top universities including Columbia in New York City, Yale in Connecticut, Harvard in Massachusetts, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

"I was very impressed by the fact that so many people are interested in Peking Opera and curious about Chinese culture, including Chinese people and others from various cultural backgrounds. I met with members of Peking Opera societies in several universities," she adds.

"I also met professors who asked questions about Peking Opera. It made me reflect on what I've learned since childhood from a new perspective." Those include: Why do actresses always walk in circles on the stage? Why do the musical instruments follow the opera singers? How do the choreography and arias serve the storytelling?

"These discussions made me realize how Peking Opera is deeply rooted in Chinese aesthetics and philosophy," she says.

Peking Opera is an important part of China's cultural heritage. Shi maintains that it is important to keep the art moving forward and continue to communicate with modern audiences.

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Masters such as Mei Lanfang worked with some of the best playwrights and theater artists of their time. Together, they pushed Peking Opera to an unprecedented artistic level. "I hope to work with playwrights in this way and create new operas that resonate with today's audiences," Shi says.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn