On quiet evenings after dinner, Yuan Jun would follow her father, Yuan Shihai (1916-2002), down familiar streets, half a step behind, listening as his voice drifted into soft fragments of Peking Opera. It was never a performance. There was no stage, no costume, no audience — only the steady rhythm of footsteps and the man quietly singing to himself.
To a child, it felt puzzling. Her father had already spent the day in rehearsal or on stage, portraying emperors, generals and heroes before hundreds or even thousands of eyes. Yet, even in these ordinary moments, he continued to sing — testing phrases, repeating lines, letting melodies circle back again and again, as if the work of performance had no clear boundary between stage and life.
Only later did she understand.
"My father was not simply revisiting familiar tunes. He was thinking through them, inhabiting them anew," recalls Yuan Jun, adding that each walk was an extension of the rehearsal room and each of his hummed phrases was a quiet return to the characters he carried through life.
This continuous, almost instinctive immersion defined one of the most influential careers in modern Peking Opera. A towering master of the jing, or painted-face role, one of the four principal role categories, Yuan Shihai helped shape the artistic foundation of Yuan-style acting, leaving behind a legacy that continues to define this distinctive performance style's expressive power today.
This year marks the 110th anniversary of Yuan Shihai's birth. To commemorate the occasion, China National Peking Opera Company in Beijing presented three special performances from June 5 to 7, gathering artists to revisit and honor the roles he once made unforgettable. On June 3, a symposium was held at the company, with Yuan Jun, her father's apprentices and Peking Opera insiders sharing their memories of this master.
According to Wang Yong, president of China National Peking Opera Company, Yuan Shihai is widely celebrated as an iconic figure who elevated the stylized jiazihualian performances of Peking Opera to their historical peak. Not only did he hold a central place in the art form's history, but he also played a legendary role in shaping China National Peking Opera Company, both as a founding architect and the creator of its distinctive artistic style.
