Guo Lanying ( zh, 郭兰英; born 31 December 1929 in

Pingyao Pingyao, officially Pingyao Ancient City, is a walled city in central Shanxi, China, famed for its importance in Chinese economic history and for its well-preserved Ming and Qing urban planning and architecture. Administratively, it comprise ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

) is a noted Chinese operatic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

best known for singing patriotic songs such as " My Motherland" (1956) and " Nanniwan" (1943). She was born into a poor family in Pingyao, central Shanxi, and began studying '' Shanxi bangzi'', a form of local opera, at the age of six. She performed with the local theatrical troupe in

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

, the provincial capital, at the age of 11. In the 1940s, she majored in opera at North China United University (华北联合大学) and performing with that university's Song and Dance Troupe. With that troupe, she performed many dance dramas. Following the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

, Guo became the chief performer in the Song and Dance Theatre of the

Central Conservatory of Music The Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM; ) is the national music academy of China, located in Beijing. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The academy is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction. Overview Fo ...

, Central Experimental Opera, and China Opera House. She played the leading roles in many new operas, including ''

The White Haired Girl ''The White-Haired Girl'' () is a Chinese contemporary classical opera by Yan Jinxuan to a Chinese libretto by He Jingzhi and Ding Yi. It was later adapted to a ballet, a Peking opera, and a film. The ballet adaptation was regarded as a revo ...

'' and '' The Marriage of Little Er Hei''. In the 1960s she appeared in the film '' The East Is Red. Along with the singer Wang Kun, she was a member of the first generation of Chinese performing artists to train overseas. She visited the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and other nations. Guo retired in 1982, continuing to teach at the

China Conservatory of Music The China Conservatory of Music (CCMusic; ) is a municipal music academy in Chaoyang, Beijing, China. The school is affiliated with the City of Beijing, and co-funded by the Beijing Municipal People's Government and the Ministry of Culture an ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. In 1986 she established the Guo Lanying Art School in

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

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Guo Lanying article
1929 births Living people Chinese women singers People from Jinzhong Chinese sopranos Singers from Shanxi Educators from Shanxi Delegates to the 1st National People's Congress Delegates to the 2nd National People's Congress Delegates to the 3rd National People's Congress Delegates to the 5th National People's Congress Delegates to the 6th National People's Congress Delegates to the National People's Congress from Shanxi People's Artists of China {{China-bio-stub

See also

References

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