Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang and his wife Qiu Lilian endured tragic ordeals and death brought upon them by the sordid Cultural Revolution. Qiu Lilian was from a wealthy family in Shanghai and was the leading socialite in that social circle. She had a premonition that a catastrophe would befall mainland China sooner or later.
For their safety, before the Cultural Revolution, she sent five of her children abroad to study and establish their new lives and careers. In later years, their children achieved great success, among which one, Tsai Chin, became the first 007 Chinese Bond girl, one became a Chinese catering giant, and another one became a “Ci Gu” (or “Aunt Ci”), a figure in the entertainment circles of Hong Kong and Shanghai of that time.
The life of Zhou Xinfang
“Out of the six children of the Zhou family, five escaped the ten years of catastrophe!” the well-known “Ci Gu” in the Hong Kong and Shanghai entertainment circles said with emotion in an interview with Shanghai’s Xinmin Weekly in 2009. She is the fourth daughter of Zhou Xinfang and Qiu Lilian.
The one who stayed behind in mainland China by his parents’ side was their eldest son, Shaoilin, while the other five were sent out of the country one after another by their mother when they were young.
In 1947, Qiu Lilian sent her eldest daughter to study in the United States. In 1953, the third daughter and the youngest son were sent to the United Kingdom to study. Subsequently, the second and fourth daughters were sent to Hong Kong.
Qiu Lilian had experienced the scourge of war in previous troubled times, and she was far more alert and sensitive to the dangers of the prevailing situation than her husband. Before the Cultural Revolution and even earlier, she was not optimistic about the prospects in mainland China, which gave her a sense of foreboding.
When Qiu Lilian sent her eldest daughter to study in the United States in 1947, her maiden Qiu family also moved to Hong Kong, and they invited Qiu Lilian to join them. However, Qiu Lilian declined as she knew that Zhou Xinfang was profoundly patriotic and would not leave quickly. If her husband would not go, she would not leave without him.
The children share a lifelong admiration for their mother
Years later, the children admire their mother’s foresight as initially, they were reluctant to leave home and their comfort zone in Shanghai. When the children became adults and learned that their parents had endured tragic deaths in the Cultural Revolution, they understood and marveled at their mother’s good intentions.
The fourth daughter also said: “My mother was amazing. She was always so capable, and she saw human nature and everything. She had a worldly side and a high transcendent side. My mother once said: ‘Sooner or later, there will be a big bump on the head,’ which, to the Shanghainese, meant that sooner or later, there would be a big hurdle that would be difficult to pass.”
In the spring and summer of 1949, a promoter tried to persuade Zhou Xinfang to move to Hong Kong. The promoter even promised a large sum of money and various preferential conditions and arranged for Zhou Xinfang to travel worldwide to perform. However, none moved Zhou Xinfang, who chose to stay in Shanghai.
For this reason, Chen Yi, the then-mayor of Shanghai, hosted a special banquet in honor of this patriotic artist. In 1949, at the founding ceremony of the Communist Party of China, both Zhou Xinfang and Mei Lanfang, another notable Chinese Peking opera artist, were invited to the Tiananmen Tower.
Who was Master Zhou Xinfang?
Zhou Xinfang was a famous Chinese Peking Opera performance artist and the founder of the Qi School. At seven, He debuted on stage with the name “Qilin Tong” (meaning Qilin boy). Even as a teenager, Zhou Xinfang was well-known all over the country. He acted in more than 600 plays during his life, created and adapted two to three hundred, and created many classic dramatic characters. He starred in plays such as Xiao He Chases Han Xin and other masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. His popularity grew along with his great artistic talents.
After Zhou Xinfang’s voice dramatically changed at fourteen, his original clear voice became hoarse, which was taboo for an opera singer. However, Zhou Xinfang did not give up. After several years of painstaking training, he used this hoarse voice to figure out the singing voice that became popular with audiences.
Although his voice was hoarse, his singing was simple, sad, and resonant, which had a unique charm. Because of this, he gained more and more fans. Coupled with his solid martial arts, he raised his legs, flicked his sleeves, flicked his beard, and played countless roles, forming a unique “Qi School.”
As veteran actors, he and Ma Lianliang, another famous Peking Opera singer, were known as “Southern Qi and Northern Horse.” They were regarded as the two most comprehensive veteran performing arts masters who had been active on the Peking Opera stage for decades during the twentieth century.
Fell foul of a raging ego: Madame Mao
After the establishment of the Communist Party of China (CCP), Zhou Xinfang successively served as the president of the East China Opera Research Institute, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, and the president of the Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre. He joined the CCP in 1959.
Since 1963, Jiang Qing, who regarded herself as a “cultural standard-bearer,” has gone to Shanghai to engage in the “literary revolution” and arrange model plays.
In 1965, Zhou Xinfang criticized Jiang Qing at a party branch meeting of Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre for stopping the troupe from performing and for single-handedly putting on a series of model plays such as Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, which cost hundreds of thousands of yuan and wasted money and time.
Due to this, Jiang Qing hated Zhou Xinfang to the core. So she spread gossip everywhere, saying Zhou Xinfang’s history was unclear.
The plot to take down Zhou Xinfang
Soon after, in several articles, Shanghai’s Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing state-owned newspaper based in Hong Kong, began criticizing Zhou Xinfang’s Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, labeling him “anti-party and anti-socialist.”
In May 1966, the leader of the Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre and two special agents broke into Zhou Xinfang’s home and took him directly into confinement. Before leaving, Zhou Xinfang looked at his wife for a while, then hugged her and said: “I’m leaving, take care!” Qiu Lilian knew what she had been worrying about for many years had come.
In August 1966, Zhou Xinfang and his eldest son, Shaolin, were detained at the Peking Opera Theatre to confess their “problem-making.” The Red Guards rushed straight to Zhou Xinfang’s house, killed the watchdog with bricks and stones, beat the daughter-in-law with military belts until she fainted, grabbed the granddaughter, and shaved her head in public, which terrified her until she went insane. She was later admitted to the Shanghai Psychiatric Hospital.
When Zhou Xinfang was taken to the Shanghai Lanxin Theatre, his eldest son was also taken with him. Zhou Xinfang asked his son: “Why are you here? They’re going to beat you!.” The eldest son replied: “If they beat me, you will get lesser beatings.”
During the January storm in Shanghai in 1967, Zhou Xinfang was hung up, elevated from a power line repair truck, and paraded in the streets. His arms were tied behind his back, blood was flowing from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth, his hair was tightly held up, and his face was bruised and turned purple.
Horrors inflicted on his faithful wife
At the same time, Zhou Xinfang’s wife, Qiu Lilian, was arrested by the rebels and beaten until her skin was torn apart, and she later became bedridden. Qiu Lilian was dragged out by the insurgents and beaten in the streets many times, leaving her with bruises all over her body. Someone advised her to avoid it. She said: “I can’t avoid it; if I do, they will deal with Mr. Zhou likewise.” She said to her daughter-in-law: “Let them beat me, or else they will beat your father-in-law.”
In March 1968, Zhang Chunqiao, a member of the “Gang of Four,” personally approved the arrest of Zhou Xinfang and his eldest son. Just a few days after Zhou Xinfang was arrested, Qiu Lilian was beaten again, and her kidneys were injured. She was found lying in Zhou Xinfang’s study.
The dear lady closed her eyes for the last time
Her daughter-in-law saw that she was in a critical condition and hurriedly sent her to the hospital, but she was not allowed to be treated and was placed in the corridor outside the emergency room.
Qiu Lilian knew she could not survive this time and waited for the last moment. Looking back on her 63 years of life, the most extraordinary relief is that she saved five children by sending them abroad. Her biggest regret was that she failed to protect her husband. They had lived together through ups and downs for 45 years, and she once carried a small gun with her and accompanied her husband in the Northern provinces for three years. She loved Zhou Xinfang more than herself. She could not close her eyes and leave Zhou Xinfang behind.
In the middle of the night on March 27, 1968, she said to her daughter-in-law, who was looking after her: “Don’t cry; in the future, your father will.” Before she could finish her words, she sadly passed away. Qiu Lilian, the wife of Zhou Xinfang, a leading Chinese Peking Opera figure and a legendary woman in Shanghai, died in this way.
In 1969, Zhou Xinfang and his eldest son were successively released. The husband did not see his wife, and the son did not see his mother. No one dared to tell Zhou Xinfang the news that Qiu Lilian had died. However, Zhou Xinfang soon understood. He did not ask any further and no longer mentioned his wife. He often sat alone, facing the wall, crying bitterly.
His loving children shielded their father from the horrors of her death
If he knew that Qiu Lilian was hit on the head like a punching bag, either against the wall or against the ground until she passed out, Zhou Xinfang might not have been able to survive for another seven years. He had been waiting for Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to rehabilitate him. He did not know that Zhou Enlai would not save the person Jiang Qing wanted to destroy. Zhou Enlai did not hesitate to betray his mistress, brother, and bodyguards, who had been with him for many years, to please Jiang Qing.
In 1970, Zhou Xinfang and his eldest son could not stand Jiang Qing and her gang, so they published articles in the newspaper on Xia Yan (one of the Shanghai leftists against whom Jiang Qing bore a grudge) and “Sai Jinhua” (a courtesan). The next day, Zhou Xinfang’s eldest son was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison under the pretext of “non-proliferation” and sent to Anhui labor camp to serve the sentence.
In 1974, Zhou Xinfang was officially labeled as a “counter-revolutionary” and placed under public supervision and surveillance.
The grand Chinese patriot bids farewell to the world
In February 1975, Zhou Xinfang’s eldest son was released from prison and was then sent to a labor camp in the suburbs. He could only go home once on weekends. The father and son only met once or twice. On March 8, Zhou Xinfang died of a heart attack in Huashan Hospital at the age of 80. When his body was carried out of the ward, the patients in the hospital followed after him to bid him a fond farewell.
After many years, whenever they talk about their parents, the children of the Zhou family are grieved, like sticking a knife to their hearts, and they regularly cry while sharing about them.
See Part 2 here
Translated by Chua BC
