Sun Zhengyang, a famous Peking Opera performance artist, representative inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage (Peking Opera) project, and a national first-class actor of the Shanghai Peking Opera Company, passed away at 5:22 a.m. on March 7, 2024 at the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital at the age of 93.
The official WeChat of the Shanghai Peking Opera Company.
An obituary was published at 17:37 on March 7.
Sun Zhengyang was born in 1931 in Yutian, Hebei Province. He studied art since childhood, and at the age of 9, he was admitted to the Peking Opera class of the "Zheng" character of the Shanghai Theater School, and studied under Liu Songqiao, Luo Wenkui, Guan Hongbin, Liang Lianzhu, etc. In 1955, he joined the Shanghai Peking Opera Company, and often performed on the same stage with Zhou Xinfang, Gai Zhaotian, Yu Zhenfei, Yan Huizhu, Tong Zhiling, Li Yuru, Gu Zhengqiu, Zhao Yanxia, Du Jinfang, Mei Baojiu, Li Huifang and other famous artists. Sun Zhengyang has a solid foundation, both civil and military, a crisp voice, a crisp and sharp pronunciation, a witty and vulgar performance, and an eclectic mix of northern and southern genre arts, forming a unique performance style, and has the reputation of "Jiangnan Famous and Ugly". The representative repertoire includes "Blocking the Horse", "Haizhou Passing", "Picking Up the Jade Bracelet", "Iron Bow Edge", "Grandma Liu and Wang Xifeng", "The Phoenix Returns to the Nest", "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", etc., especially in "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", he successfully played the role of the villain "Luan Ping", which left a deep impression on the audience.
Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness (two books) Sun Zhengyang as Jiang Ping.
From November 1939 to the autumn of 1945, the Shanghai Theatre School was established in Shanghai for the purpose of "advocating and sorting out traditional opera and cultivating Peking Opera talents". Sun Zhengyang is one of them. Writer Qin Shouou once recalled, "I remember that Sun Zhengyang, who played the harlequin at that time, was the youngest, but he was very experienced in acting, but when he needed to sit on a chair, he had to be supported by the inspection staff, so it made the audience laugh." ”
"Blocking the Horse" Zhang Meijuan as Yang Bajie, Sun Zhengyang as Jiao Guangpu.
Sun Zhengyang has worked with many famous actors in his life, leaving a number of unforgettable stage images. In 1953, Li Yuru, Sun Zhengyang and others arranged and adapted "Little Cattle" and went to North Korea to perform condolences, which was warmly welcomed. In 1955, he and Li Yuru participated in the Warsaw Youth Gala and performed "Autumn River" and "Picking Up Jade Bracelets".
Li Yuru and Sun Zhengyang in "Little Cattle".
In 1954, the East China Opera Observation Show was unprecedented, Sun Zhengyang won the second prize of Peking Opera Actor, and was the only award-winning clown.
Tong Zhiling and Sun Zhengyang in "Iron Bow Edge".
In 1958, the Shanghai Peking Opera Company adapted the Peking Opera "Outwitting Tiger Mountain" based on a story of "Outwitting Tiger Mountain" in Qu Bo**'s "Lin Hai Snow Plain", with Sun Zhengyang playing the role of the villain Luan Ping.
Tong Xiangling and Sun Zhengyang in "Outwitting Tiger Mountain".
In 1999, the Shanghai Peking Opera Company launched a new historical Peking opera "Zhenguan Grand Event", in which the immortal Sun Zhengyang combined a variety of performance methods such as old students, martial arts students, and ugly deeds, and brought to life the meritorious but extravagant, arrogant and unreasonable uncle Sun Wuji.
Sun Zhengyang, Guan Dongtian, Shang Changrong, and Chen Xinyi are rehearsing "Zhenguan Grand Event".
In 2011, Mei Pai Tsing Yi Shi Yihong announced the start of singing the whole Cheng Pai drama "Suo Lin Bag", which became the focus of attention of fans. "Suolin Bag" specially invited Sun Zhengyang to play the role of Mei Xiang in the play, he is the Mei Xiang in Gu Zhengqiu's version of "Suo Lin Bag".
Sun Zhengyang and Shi Yihong in "Suolin Bag".
In December 2002, Sun Zhengyang was the first in China.
Peking Opera Harlequin Performing Arts Seminar.
Lectures are held. Facing the students of the Jingkun industry and the students of the brother drama genre, Sun Zhengyang said that although some harlequin actors have also been trained in various opera industries, there are really not many outstanding ones. Most young harlequin actors still stay at the level of how the teacher teaches them and how they act. Individual harlequin actors don't understand that the harlequin only exposes and satirizes the ugly people and ugly things in life, and does not naturally display the ugliness; Instead, it should be required to express these ugly contents more clearly in the form of beautiful art and innovation.
Sun Zhengyang teaches.
Sun Zhengyang said that he was ugly at the end of his life, and he was the fifth oldest in the ugly ranking, and no one was born to like to play the "ugly fifth". He took himself as an example, he started learning drama at the age of 6, and he learned to be a harlequin, and he was not happy at that time, he gaged on stage all day long, either playing a thief with a roe deer's head, or playing a physically defective person, and always played a green leaf and played a supporting role. However, after decades, he knows that "no ugliness is not a play", and there are "no small roles, only small actors" on stage. Although the harlequin exposes the "ugly", the form must not be "ugly", but should be beautiful, and even more so to turn ugliness into beauty. This requires making correct aesthetic judgments about the characters, what to praise, what to satirize, what to sympathize with, and how to grasp the proportions? All need to be carefully analyzed. On March 7th, the host Cao Kefan @可凡listening, shared a former interview on Weibo**, and praised Mr. Sun Zhengyang as a generation of celebrities and uglies in the Peking Opera industry, and what is even more touching is that the next day was originally the wedding anniversary of him and his wife, such a coincidence made many netizens couldn't help but be moved.
Wang Peiyu, a well-known Peking Opera actress, also posted a message of condolences after learning of this unfortunate news.
Netizens also mourned: Mr. Sun is eternal!
*: Newsroom Comprehensive.