Yu Shan

Biography

Yu Shan was born in 1908 in Shanyin, Shaoxing, Zhejiang. She came from the prominent Yu family of Shanyin; her grandfather Yu Mingchen was a late Qing dynasty Hanlin academician and former supervisor of the Jiangnan Naval Academy. Her father Yu Dachun and uncle Yu Dawei were government officials during the Republic of China era, and her younger brother Yu Qiwei became the first mayor of Tianjin in the People's Republic of China. She studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Shanghai. In 1929, Tian Han invited her to join the Nanguo Society drama troupe. She rose to fame after starring in Oscar Wilde's "Salome" and later starred in Tian Han's adaptation of "Carmen" in 1930. She had close associations with Liang Shiqiu and Xu Zhimo. In December 1933, she married Zhaotaimou, a pioneer of the national opera movement and member of the preparatory committee for National Qingdao University, but they later divorced. In 1948, she went to the North China Liberated Area. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, she worked at the Jiangsu Opera Troupe and the Chinese Opera Research Institute. During the Cultural Revolution, she was persecuted and had her hair humiliatingly shaved by Red Guards. She died in 1968.