Yang Li-hua

Since her first appearance at age 22, she has been in nearly 170 productions on TTV. She specializes in male roles, ranging from emperors and aristocrats to warriors and beggars.

In 1996, Yang, then over fifty, was voted one of the ten hottest idols by a gay and lesbian organization.[6]

Yang was born into a family with a strong theatrical background in Yuanshan, Yilan County, the original hometown of Taiwanese opera. Her grandfather was the organiser of an amateur "peikuan orchestra group". Her mother, Hsiao Chang-sou, was herself a famous male role-player with a Taiwanese opera group in Yilan County. It was common for actors and actresses in Taiwan Opera troupes to bring their children with them on tour, and these experiences influenced Yang from an early age to devote her own life to Taiwanese opera.[6][7][8]

Yang began to play walk-on roles when she was 4 years old. At the age of 7, she played the lead in a play called An-An Chases Chickens 《安安趕雞》.[2][6][8]

She travelled from town to town until she reached school age, but continued to dream of opera. One time, after visiting her parents during a school vacation, she got off the train to return to Ilan at the last minute, and despite opposition by her parents, convinced them that she was going to stay and study Taiwanese opera.[6][7] She then commenced a strict regimen of training from her mother, opera veteran Hsiao Chang-sou. Yang practised proper ways of walking across the stage, conditioning by stretching muscles in her legs, basic martial arts movements, and singing.[7]

She began performing in the 1950s, when Taiwanese opera was being performed in theaters rather than outdoors as it had been traditionally. Later, with the rising popularity of Taiwanese-language movies, opera theaters were converted into movie theaters and indoor opera began to disappear. The family fell on hard times and Yang, the eldest daughter, vowed to find success and lift her family out of poverty.[6]

Yang made her starring debut at age 16 in the opera Lu Wen-long 《陸文龍》. Her performances were well received by the audiences, and she was recruited by the Sai Chin Pao opera troupe. Her "handsome" appearance and superb technique made her the pillar of the Sai-Chin-Pao ke-tsai-hsi group and she was promoted alongside Hsiao Ming-ming (小明明), Hsiao Feng-hsien (小鳳仙), and other popular stars as the troupe's "Seven Immortals" (七仙女). The overseas Chinese community in the Philippines invited this group to perform in Manila, and they went on a six-month tour of the Philippines. Yang earned enough money to buy a house for her parents, the first they had ever owned, and developed a Southeast Asian fan base.[3][6][7]

She returned to Taiwan to find that opera was on the decline. It was largely relegated to outdoor religious ceremonies, weddings, and funerals, so opportunities to perform were few. By 1962, the development of the domestic TV and movie industries had reduced the island's 200-odd theatrical groups down to 30. Yang's group disbanded in 1964.[7]

Yang was out of work for an entire year, and returned to her village. During this period, she would wander the paddy fields, disquieted.[6][7]

At a time when most performing artists were turning their backs to Taiwanese opera, Yang tried her luck with several other groups, finally joining the Tien Ma Group in 1965. This became the watershed of Yang's career.[7]

In an attempt to instill new life into Taiwanese opera, some opera enthusiasts tried to re-popularise this folk drama via radio, and performances by the Tien Ma Group were broadcast live throughout the island. Yang became a radio performer, renewing her faith in opera.[6][7] People regularly gathered around radios to listen to Yang singing Xue Dingshan 《薛丁山》.[6]

"I never realized that a Taiwanese opera performance doesn't have to rely on bodily motions," she said. "You can make opera lovers hear it all with just a microphone." Without an audience watching, money could be saved by having one performer use different voices to play several characters at the same time. Performing in falsetto was hard on Yang, who in the past had always pushed her voice low to play male characters. But the experience gave new exposure to her talents.[6]

In 1966, black-and-white television had just come to Taiwan. The only television station at the time, TTV, was looking to add Taiwanese opera to its programming. Yang's troupe, Tienma, beat out the competition with a performance of Loyal Yue Fei 《岳飛》 with her in the lead role, winning a weekly spot on television. Her TV debut captivated the TV audience.[2][6][7][8] Her performances attracted viewers who were not already fans of Taiwanese opera.[6][7] Yang's television performances won high praise and made her a household name, and eventually she became known as the superstar of Taiwanese opera.[2][3][6][7][8]

Every few years, Li-hua went on tour throughout the island or abroad. Before a performance, it was common for people to swarm to her and place gold pendants around her neck, Others thrww money in red evelopes onto the stage to demonstrate their admiration.[2]

In 1969, when Yang was 25, TTV's general manager appointed her the leader of the Taiwan Television Opera Troupe, and also the show's producer. Three years later, she integrated all the Taiwanese opera troupes in Taiwan to form the TTV United Taiwanese Opera Troupe.[6][8]

In 1980, Yang laid down three objectives for the future: 1) to raise the standards of the production and performance of Taiwanese opera; 2) to reinforce basic research and development work in opera, specifically to record the original songs and compile new material; and 3) to support training for actors interested in performing Taiwanese opera.[7]

To perpetuate the art form and combat the decline of Taiwanese opera, in cooperation with TTV, she organized a Taiwanese opera Training Class in 1981 to train the Taiwanese opera stars of tomorrow.[3][8]

She felt that traditional Taiwanese Opera was held back by the stage – not only were the backdrops and props simplistic, there were also only two or three actors in each scene, which translated poorly to the TV format. She pushed for more lifelike productions, with more attention paid to props and costumes.[6][7] As a producer she took steps to make the productions more dramatic and directed. In addition to having script outlines made, she also hired Ti Shan to write new pieces and Chen Tsung-ming to direct. She created stronger parts for actors playing male roles. She also had people search for lost Taiwanese Opera plays, write new melodies, and develop new singing styles.[6]

Due to political restrictions at the time, Taiwanese Opera could only be on the air for 30 minutes. With commercials and credits, there were only about 23 minutes for the opera itself. A tight pace had to be maintained, so Yang cut out long, slow weeping scenes and emphasized faster-paced material. She added detailed dialogue and choreography. Though older audiences resisted these changes, the performances won larger audiences and brought Taiwanese Opera into the age of television.[6]

Yang's hits over her decades-long career included: Seven Heroes and Five Gallants 《七俠五義》, The Legend of the Yang Clan 《楊家將》, Xue Rengui Conquers the East 《薛仁貴》, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai 《梁山伯與祝英台》 and A Civet for a Prince 《狸貓換太子》. The 1979 production A Hero's Shadow in the Autumn Frost 《俠影秋霜》 used cinematic special effects to heighten the excitement of sword fighting scenes. The following year, Xue Pinggui 《薛平貴》 was the first Taiwanese opera to be filmed outdoors, with actors riding horses across sands. The 1992 production The Patrolman and the Thief 《巡案與大盜》 was filmed on board a pirate ship in the ocean off Cebu, the Philippines.

Two years later, her God of the River Luo 《洛神》 was filmed on location in Beijing. She had Huang Shi (黃石), a renowned composer from the mainland, write music to be performed by a symphony orchestra. The production was the first Taiwanese opera program to be shown on Taiwanese prime time TV.[6]

In addition to television productions, Yang also starred in many Taiwanese-language films. One of those, the 1981 film Chen San and Wu Niang 《陳三五娘》, was the last such Taiwanese-language production.[6]

In addition to making Taiwanese opera more elaborate and modernized, Yang also aimed to turn what was often thought of as a vulgar art form into high art.[6] In 1981, Yang's group was invited to perform in Taipei's stately Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and Yang chose her favourite drama, The Fisherwoman 《漁孃》 as the presentation, with assistance from students of the Haikuang Opera School.[3][7]

The next year, the Taiwan Provincial Government invited Yang to tour across the island and stage traditional folk theater for fishermen, miners, and salt workers in villages around the island. "When you first arrive in a village, you can't even see a sign of human beings, but on the night of the performance, they emerge in throngs. I can't imagine where they come from. I love the live stage - much better than TV. You can breathe with the audience. Your special reward is the audience's immediate response, its joy and sorrow," she said.[3][7]

In 1991, her production of Lu Bu and Diao Chan 《呂布與貂嬋》 held at the National Theater caused a sensation.[6]

In 1995, during a four-day engagement (October 25–28) at Taipei's National Theater, Yang reached back 30 years to restage a traditional opera that she had not appeared. The Taiwanese opera Lu Wen-long 《陸文龍》 in which Yang made her debut when she was 17 years old, owns a special place in her heart. The play, a story about a young warrior who grapples with feelings of love, hate, and clan loyalty during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), dazzled the Taipei audiences with demonstrations of martial arts. But it also had a tender side, that being the bittersweet romance between Lu and Yehlu. The versatile Yang excels in both areas; she can play it hard or soft. In the beginning of "Lu Wen-lung," Yang skillfully wields two spears in a rhythmic combat dance considered one of the most difficult martial art scenes in Taiwanese opera. To ensure a perfect scene, the actress said she practised with the spears three hours a day for an entire month. For the Taipei performances, however, Yang toned down the traditional emphasis on combat scenes to give the story a more intellectual appeal.[3]

In 2000, Yang and her troupe performed Liang-Zhu 《梁祝》, a Chinese love story famous for its romantic yet tragic ending.[4] The traditional story has been adapted for the screen, radio and television. "This is one of the earliest and most traditional plays in the repertoire of Taiwanese opera," Yang said at a press conference in Taipei. Yang's six-day engagement attracted people from all walks of life. Tickets for the shows were purchased months in advance.[4]

In one scene of Liang-Zhu 《梁祝》, Yang as the male lead carries the heroine on her back for several minutes. Yang said she is physically comfortable with this, as she has performed the scene many times during her long career.[4] Yang's students Chen Ya-lan (陳亞蘭) and Ji Li-ru (紀麗如) played the other two important characters in the play. Both Chen and Ji have been in the Taiwanese opera circles for more than 20 years. Chen is also a popular actress, singer and hostess on television and has been known as Yang's successor.[4]

In 2007, having been absent from the limelight for four years, Yang was asked to return to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the National Theater by performing new versions of the operas A Civet for a Prince《狸貓換太子》 and A Life for the Master 《丹心救主》. She reworked the songs for the opera and newly choreographed the works in collaboration with experienced performer Hsiao Feng-hsien (小鳳仙) and Peking Opera director Chu Lu-hao (朱陸豪), and also took on the challenge of playing three different parts. As well as playing the Song Dynasty emperor Renzong (宋仁宗), who was traded for a raccoon as a child and who as an adult sought out his birth mother from among the commoners, she also played a loyal minister and the commoner who looked after the emperor's birth mother.[6]

Yang married Hung Wen-tung on 26 March 1983.[2] The marriage drew thousands of uninvited fans to the Grand Hotel.[7]

A year after her marriage, she toured the United States, Japan and the Philippines to entertain overseas Chinese under arrangements by the Government Information Office.[8]

Many scholars who studied drama said that Taiwanese opera would have died out several decades ago had it not been for Yang. In 1982, under arrangements made by the Taiwan Provincial Government, Yang led a touring troupe around Taiwan to provide encouragement to fishermen and miners. Many of her fans went to see and support her, thereby attaching more importance and significance to Taiwanese opera.[8]

Yang's performances have won acclaim both at home and abroad.[3][8]

• 1967:National Theatre Contest Winner of Best Actor
• 1978:Columbia International Film Festival Award for the Most Popular Film
• 1985:Excellent TV Theatre Show --The Flirting Scholar 《風流才子唐伯虎》
• 1988:The Golden Bell Award for Traditional Theatre~The Best Soap Opera -- Wang Wenying & Bamboo Reed Horse 《王文英與竹蘆馬》
• 1991:New York American Chinese Arts Association Award for Outstanding Asian Art Performer
• 1993:The Golden Bell Award for Special Contribution-for her lifetime contribution to the development of Taiwanese opera
• 1995:Taipei City Award for Folk Art Performer
• 1996:Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission's Huaguang Medal
• 1998:Elected One of Taiwan's 50 Most Influential People in the Past 400 Years by Common Wealth Magazine

Yang starred in the 1982 Huangmei opera film Imperial Matchmaker (狀元媒) directed by Pao Hsueh-li, alongside Ivy Ling Po.

In the 1990s, cable television became widespread in Taiwan and the original three broadcast networks lost their dominance. At the same time, TTV was making moves to take back the rights to the television show against Yang's will. This put a damper on their working relationship, and the Taiwan Television Yang Li-hua Opera show came to an end.[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yang Li-hua.

• Lihua-city 戀戀花城
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• Yang Li-hua YouTube Channel