Wang Jun'an

Biography

Wang Jun'an was born in 1970 in Sheng County, Zhejiang Province, and is a National First-Class Yue opera actress specializing in the male lead (xiaosheng) role in the Yin school. She joined the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe in 1981 and began her five-year training in Fuzhou, where the founder of the Yin school, Yin Guifang, discovered her artistic talent and trained her, making her the recognized fifth-generation direct disciple of the school. She began her long-time partnership with Li Min from her second year of training. She made her debut in 1986 at the Yin Guifang Yue Opera Style Concert, and then performed as Jia Baoyu in the Yin school's Dream of the Red Chamber in Shanghai for 30 consecutive performances, earning the nickname "Little Yin Guifang." In 1996, she left her flourishing Yue opera career to study in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree in economics and financial management from The Catholic University of America in 2001. She returned to China in 2003 to revive Dream of the Red Chamber in memory of the third anniversary of Yin Guifang's passing, and participated in the troupe's 60th anniversary celebrations in 2006. In 2008, she participated as a representative of the Yin school in the all-star version of Butterfly Lovers, and was officially rated as a National First-Class actress in December of that year. She has won numerous awards, including the Ministry of Culture's Wenhua Performance Award in 1994 and the Gold Medal at the Xiaobaifua Yue Opera Festival in 1994, and was selected in 2008 as the provincial-level intangible cultural heritage representative inheritor of the Yin school art.