ABSTRACT
Although I have not received any official statistics, Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, who visits the PRC regularly for jingju conferences as well as preparations for student jingju productions at the University of Hawaii at Monoa, observes that nandan performers in jingju “are increasing rapidly” and “more and more [nandan performers] are being trained” during the last one or two decades (2011). Sun Peihong informed me during interviews in 2012 and 2014 that while more and more nandan performers had been trained, most unofficially, there were quite a few nandan performers hired by jingju companies, from the National Jingju Theatre in Beijing to local jingju companies in provinces outside of Beijing. He also sent me photos of seven young nandan performers whom he had met at a jingju conference on nandan in Beijing in 2013. Retired nandan performer Wen Ruhua revealed in his interviews that he had received quite a few nandan performers or trainees at his residence in Beijing, who were soliciting his advice on performance skills and techniques. One of them was Liu Bing (1989–), a student at NACTA, whom I also interviewed in 2012 and 2014. In fact, numerous news reports in the PRC suggest that there have been many appeals from high-ranking cultural officials, theatre critics, professors of xiqu and leading jingju performing artists for more training of nandan and more public performances by nandan performers of the young generation (Sun, interview, 2012).
