Peking Opera actress follows veteran to revive old art form

Related video: Reviving Peking Opera

A young Peking Opera actress follows in the footsteps of a veteran to revive the old art form.

Actress Li Li walks quickly around the stage in a circle. Painstakingly, she repeats the moves again and again. The dust from the carpet billows in the air, catching the sunlight as it streams through the window.

For three hours every morning, she has been practicing the walks that transform her into a typical female character, or dan, in the traditional Chinese art form of Peking Opera.

The character she is rehearsing is Princess Tiejing from the classic Peking Opera Yang Silang Visits His Mother, which Li is due to perform on May 6 at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing.

"I just bought these new shoes," says Li, pointing to her blue cloth slip-on shoes. "The practice is intensive and the old ones wore out within two months."

While taking a short break, she sits on the carpet and watches on her tablet her teacher's performance of the same role. Her teacher is Zhang Huoding, one of the country's biggest Peking Opera stars, and one that Li considers as her "biggest inspiration".

"My teacher told me that the only way to guarantee the quality of the performance is to practice, from eye contact to breathing and movements onstage," says Li, 29. "She doesn't talk much but she is very inspiring."

The 47-year-old Zhang, who was born in Baicheng city in Northeast China's Jilin province, focuses on the Cheng school - one of the four major Peking Opera styles founded by famed master Cheng Yanqiu (1904-58) that emerged in the early 20th century - and has given sold-out shows across the country attracting audiences of all ages.

Li received her Peking Opera training from the age of 7 in Tianjin, where she was born and grew up. She then enrolled to study at an art school in the northern city, where she became a student of Meng Xianrong, a veteran Peking Opera actress who once taught Zhang.

In 2016, the Beijing-based National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts launched a project, which saw Zhang teach young female Peking Opera students.

Li, who graduated with a master's degree from the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts and works with Beijing Peking Opera Theater, stood out among hundreds of applicants and later began to receive training from Zhang.

The upcoming show in Beijing will also feature performances by Zhang's other three female students - Jiang Xiaoyue, Yang Xiaoyang and Yin Chanjuan - who will interpret the classic roles once played by Zhang, including Bai Suzhen from The Legend of White Snake and Zhu Yingtai from Butterfly Lovers.