Ma Lianliang

Biography

Ma Lianliang (1901–1966) was a renowned Chinese Peking opera artist and laosheng actor, considered one of the three great masters of Peking opera during the Republic of China era. Born in Beijing to a Hui Muslim family, his father was a tea house owner who was well acquainted with the famous opera actor Tan Xiaopei. At age nine, Ma entered the Xiliancheng opera school, first learning wusheng under Rui Laiqing, then studying laosheng under masters such as Ye Chunshan and Xiao Changhua. He was deeply passionate about the Tan and Jia schools of art. His teacher Xiao Changhua created the play "Borrowing the Eastern Wind" for him, and through his dedication it became one of the most famous operas in China. At twenty-three, he formed his own troupe, Fushe, and developed the distinctive "Ma School" performance style that flourished from the 1920s to the 1960s. He traveled to Hong Kong in the late 1940s and returned to mainland China in the early 1950s, where he became head of the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe and, from 1962, principal of the Beijing Opera School. The Peking opera films "The Gathering of Heroes" and "Qin Xianglian" documented his performing art, and many recordings were made for radio and record companies. He was persecuted due to the play "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office"; during the Cultural Revolution he was ransacked, detained, and subjected to brutal physical torture, dying on December 16, 1966, after an accidental fall. His reputation was restored in 1979. He was married twice and had several children, some of whom became Peking opera performers. He trained many notable disciples, including Li Wanchun and Li Baochun.