Liu Guijuan

Biography

Liu Guijuan is a renowned Peking opera artist, born in 1965 in Tianjin, China. She studied at the Tianjin Opera School in 1975, specializing in Qingyi roles as well as Huadan and Daomadan. After graduating in 1981, she joined the newly established Tianjin Youth Peking Opera Troupe in 1984. She won a pop song competition in 1985 and released a pop album, during which time she changed her name to Liu Bingbing. In 1986, then Tianjin mayor Li Ruihuan invited Peking opera Cheng school master Li Shiji to Tianjin to teach, and in 1987 Li Shiji formally accepted Liu Guijuan as a disciple. She won the Best Performance Award in the National Young Peking Opera Actors TV Competition in 1987 and rose to fame. She entered the graduate program for outstanding young Peking opera actors at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in 1996 and graduated in 2000. In 1999, she was honored along with Li Haiyan, Zhang Huoding, Chi Xiaoqiu, and Li Peihong with the title of "Five Little Cheng Dans." She received the 24th Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award in 2007.