Profile of Wang Tianxia

Wang Tianxia, female, was born in 1930.

She comes from a family of Xihe big drums, learning the art with her father Wang Dechen since childhood, starting to accompany her father at the age of 11, and formally appearing on the stage at the age of 17. Since then, she has moved around Beijing, Tianjin, Qiqihar, Yingkou, and Zhangjiakou performing all over the world, and enjoys a very high reputation among the audience.

Died on April 1, 2019, at the age of 90 in Tianjin.

Chinese name: Wang Tianxia

Nationality: Chinese

Date of birth: 1930

Date of death: 2019

Occupation: Xiehe drum performer

Representative works: Railroad Guerrillas, Spring and Autumn of the Warring States, and the July 7th Incident

Gender: female

Personality

Biography

She was born in Xiehe, but she was born in Tianjin.

She was born in a family of Xihe drums, learning the art from her father Wang Dechen since childhood, and began to accompany her father at the age of 11, and formally appeared on the stage at the age of 17, and since then she has performed in Beijing, Tianjin, Qiqihar, Yingkou, and Zhangjiakou, and enjoys a very high reputation among the audience. She and Yan Guirong, Sun Yajun (Beijing) and known as the West River Drum "three horses", they were born in 1930, the age of gengwu. After the liberation, she joined the Shu Qu team of Hexi District of Tianjin, and in 1962, she performed a fragment of Xue Jia Shou (Xue Gang Against the Tang Dynasty) in the first "Jinmen Qu Hui". During the Cultural Revolution, she was forced to leave the stage, but in 1996, at the invitation of Hua Wubao, an actor of the Plum Blossom Drum, Wang Tianxia made her second appearance in the Tianjin Elderly Art Troupe, with the same elegance as in the previous years, and in 1997, she held a successful solo show, in which she performed a fragment of the Xue Clan General of the Xue Family in the Xihe Daxue Book, "Nightly Visit to the Customs House of Ding," with a performance of two hours, in which she performed a single performance.

In 1998, for the flood relief, she and Hao Yanxia and other veteran artists held a charity show, Wang Tianxia performed his own masterpiece "playing the yellow wolf".

In 1998, she took part in a charity performance for flood relief held by the Tianjin opera community, demonstrating the strong patriotic fervor of the old opera artists. 2011, she was invited to hold a lecture at the Tianjin Municipal Library, in which she improvised a selection of Hu Jiahui's Hu Yanqing Crossing the Yellow River. During the hour-long performance, the 81-year-old Wang Tianxia was full of energy and words, leaving the audience in awe.On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2019, despite her advanced age and frailty, she also collaborated with a songwriter to compose and sing the "New Year's Greeting Song" of the Xiehe Drum.On April 1, Wang Tianxia passed away at the age of 90 years old.

Wang Tianxia's voice condition is not generous, but she is good at bright and clever to hide the clumsy, in order to the Guankou, flash board, grab the board, fast board to play their own strengths, to form their own unique style of rapping. She has her own unique style of rapping, especially for the big countercavity of Erhuang and the big cavities such as Yimasanjian (a horse and three jumping streams). Her basic skills are solid and her attainments are superb, and she is highly praised by her peers. Many of Yan Guirong's segments are learned from Wang Tianxia. In addition to rapping, her three-string accompaniment is also at a high level, and together with Hao Yanxia, she has become a leading accompanist among the female performers of the Xihe drum.

Works

Wang Tianxia's regular repertoire includes the big books Yang Family Generals, Xue Family Generals, Hu Family Generals, Seven Kingdoms Before and After, Spring and Autumn of the Warring States and so on, and she has staged new books such as Fighting Youth, Railroad Guerrillas, Guns on the Plain, the July 7th Incident, Wind and Thunder and so on, and her accompaniment in the early days was Wang Tianshun (Wang Tianxia's younger brother) and in the later days was Cheng Xiangzhu.

She has been away from the stage for a long time and has made very few recordings. In 2001, she recorded a number of programs for Tianjin People's Broadcasting Station, accompanied by Luo Xuefa, He Zhiyuan (three-stringed instrument), and Zhang Yuheng (four-stringed instrument), which included Zhao Wuniang's Husband Hunt, Fighting the Yellow Wolf, Han Xiangzi Dulingying, The Little Two Mouths Fighting for the Lights, The Little Two Mouths Fighting, The Theory of Friendships, Ungrateful Son, Bao Gong Qua Sang, and Little Two Mouths Going to Relatives. Little Couple Going to the Relatives" and the fragment of "Yang Family Generals", "Qua Generals Fugue".