About this Artist

In 1959, XinChang County established a professional high-caliber troupe for Diaoqiang Opera. Despite the twists and turns since, XinChang is still active on the current stage. In addition to a broad, classic repertoire, from the period of March 1953 to June 1958, a large number of manuscripts were collected, including 230 copies that the new generation of the troupe could study and learn. The new students were set to protect these manuscripts and learn from them. At present, the repertoire that has been compiled and performed has reached 136 copies of "Yi Yao Chuan", "Li Hui Niang" and "Du Fu Shan". There are 51 works in the Song and Yuan Dynasties (including the Zao and Song Zaju); there are 36 in the Northern Songs (including the Remnants); 91 in the Ming Dynasty; 84 in the Qing Dynasty, plus, 136 copies of modern finishing performances. There are a total of 668 repertoires. In 2007, XinChang County Archives promoted the “Repair and Collection of XinChang Tune Archives” as a key file rescue and protection project and completed the restoration of 457 volumes of files, collecting 130 books and scripts lost in the society. This generated nearly a thousand photos, and an electronic file for about 200 volumes of the file.  

In order to ensure the continuing success of the process, the XinChang County Diaoqiang Troupe selected 34 students from the a group of 13 – 15 year-olds in the county to enter the five-year program and invited the national inheritor Zhang Huaqin and the provincial inheritor Lu Yueming. In 2008, four XinChang entrepreneurs donated RMB 4 million to set up the XinChang Regulation and Protection Fund. The troupe has successively created and rehearsed a number of repertoires such as "After the Sea Election", " Noisy Jiujiang " and "Picking Water Bo" and performed in various places including the Chinese Opera Festival and the Shaoxing Theatre Festivals. They have been well received by experts, scholars and the community. The historical integrity act that was launched in 2011 - "Qing Qing Guan" - toured the country.