Images courtesy of Xu XuanĪs Xu tells me, a career as an opera actor was considered a viable and stable path for a young child passionate about music, dancing and fighting. “They would always be playing in our house as I grew up.”Ī young Xu Xuan during a representation with the Jilin Municipal Opera Company, 1997. “My mother knew all the revolutionary operas from the Cultural Revolution by heart,” Xu says. “You won’t be spending time at a normal school and playing around with other children. “Your life will be very different from that of any other child,” she told him. It was his mother who first suggested he pursue a career in theater.

Xu had just come out of elementary school when he started his long and grueling apprenticeship at the vocational school of the Jilin Municipal Opera Company. Then, in the afternoon, we had to train for the operas themselves – the spoken and singing parts.”

We woke up at around 7am, had a quick breakfast and then immediately went down to training, until around 11.30am. “At the vocational school, we had physical training in the morning, involving martial arts, with kicking, jumps and acrobatics. Check out the full story right here.Īs he retells his story, Xu Xuan makes it clear that becoming a Chinese opera actor is no easy feat. This feature is part one of our June 2019 cover story.

Chinese opera singers