Chinese Opera Artists - Huang Zuolin: Master of Modern Chinese Drama

The late famous dramatic director Huang Zuolin 黄佐临 (1906-1994) was Bernard Shaw's favorite Chinese student.

Huang Zuolin, born on October 24th, 1906, was a native of Tianjin, but his ancestral home was Guangdong Province in South China. In 1925, Huang Zuolin went to Britain to study business where he was deeply attracted by British drama and began to learn drama performing in his spare time from Bernard Shaw. It was in 1935 that he, together with his wife, once again traveled to Britain to study Shakespeare in Cambridge University and drama directing in London Drama School.

When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Huang Zuolin went back from Britain and took drama as his weapon to fight against the war. He organized and directed a fair number of dramatic performances in Chongqing and Shanghai. He set up Wenhua Movie Company in 1946.

In 1950 Huang participated in establishing the Shanghai's People's Art Theater and acted as the vice-president, president, and honorary president in succession. Apart from teaching and directing, he spent a lot of time summing up his own theory on drama.

Huang Zuolin died on June 1st, 1994, at the age of 88. In his 66-year art career, he turned out more than one hundred works of far-reaching significance and cultivated many excellent actors and directors. His theory of establishing Chinese modern, national and scientific dramatic system is a great legacy in Chinese drama history.