Yu Jia (Yujia)

Biography

Yu Jia (1938–2023) was a Hong Kong Cantonese opera and film actor, born Zhai Yujia into an artistic family—his father Zhai Shanchong was a martial roles actor and his mother Zhou Shaoying a female lead performer. He began his career as a child actor at age seven and was hailed as a prodigy in opera. He trained in northern martial arts under renowned masters such as Huang Fengshan, Tian Qifang, Yuan Xiaotian, and Qi Yukun, and studied Cantonese opera singing under Lu Jiahui, Wang Yuesheng, and Luo Baosheng. In 1945 he began leading opera troupes with his parents, who founded the "Dan Shan Feng" troupe, followed by the "Yujia Troupe" in 1948. He acted in films from the late 1940s, with his father producing films such as "Yi Zhu Tian Shuang Hu Jiang" and "Gan Luo Bai Xiang" in 1949. In 1962 he formed the "Qing Hong Jia" troupe with Nan Hong, and in the 1970s the "Jia Bao" troupe with Li Baoying. He performed extensively in Singapore and Malaysia between 1953 and 1957. Over the decades he established multiple opera troupes and performed dozens of stage productions. In 2011 he donated thousands of precious artifacts to the Hong Kong Museum of Culture. He passed away in Hong Kong on 28 December 2023 at the age of 88.