ABSTRACT
A Jia studied poetry and calligraphy in his youth. Before joining Mao in Yan’an in 1938, he spent time as a teacher, reporter, labourer and even briefly as a monk. He also participated in many amateur Xiqu performances. At Yan’an he entered the Yan’an Academy of Arts and Literature and joined the Communist Party in 1941, serving as director and later vice president of the Yan’an Pingju (also known as Jingju, ‘Peking Opera’) Research Academy, which was established in 1942. Involved in hundreds of productions, he became one of the area’s most renowned Xiqu performers, wrote and directed many new plays, and adapted traditional plays to conform with his Communist ideals. After 1949 he studied at the Central Academy of Drama (Zhongyang xiju xueyuan) which broadened his understanding of major schools or styles of Xiqu performance as well as Western theories of performance. These ideas he incorporated into a prolific body of theoretical writing.
