Xin Fengxia

Xin Fengxia (; 1927 – 12 April 1998) was a Chinese pingju opera performer, known as the "Queen of Pingju". At that time, the theatrical world in China was controlled by gangsters. Actors, even renowned performers, had little personal freedom. She originally trained for Peking opera under her "older sister" Yang Jinxiang, but later changed to pingju.

Marriage and persecution In 1951, Lao She introduced Xin Fengxia to the famous playwright Wu Zuguang. Like many intellectuals at the time, Wu held high hopes for the new People's Republic and returned to China from British Hong Kong. Xin, who had acted in one of Wu's plays, admired his talent. They married that year, despite the fact that they were from differing socioeconomic backgrounds; she had no formal education and was nearly illiterate, while he was from a prominent family of scholars. She devoted her energy to writing, painting, and training the younger generation of pingju performers. In 1997, she published her two-million-word memoir,

The "Xin" style of pingju pioneered by Xin Fengxia has become one of the most important styles of the opera. In 2014, the China Pingju Institute created a new opera entitled Xin Fengxia to commemorate her life, with focuses on her reformation of the opera, and the love story of Xin and Wu. It is written by Huang Weiruo , and directed by Guo Xiaonan .