Wang Danfeng

Wang Danfeng was born on August 23, 1924, in Shanghai, China. Her birth name was Wang Yufeng (王玉凤). She was introduced to folk arts by her family and began learning pingshu, a traditional Chinese storytelling art form, when she was 19. She became an apprentice of Li Qinghai, a famous pingshu master, and later joined the Anshan Quyi Tuan, where she learned from other renowned performers. She went on stage at 24 and performed both classical and modern stories. She was known for her vivid and energetic narration, her use of sound effects and her ability to improvise. She was also proficient in various dialects and languages, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Japanese. During the Cultural Revolution, she was persecuted for her art and was detained for two years. She resumed her career after the end of the turmoil and became a popular radio voice in the 1980s. She also appeared on television and published books and audio recordings of her works. She performed not only in China, but also in many other countries, such as the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Australia. She was widely regarded as one of the best pingshu performers of her generation and a cultural icon of China. She was also a member of the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage inheritors, a member of Chinese Ballad Singers Association and a member of China Society for Literature Popular Research. She died of a heart attack on May 2, 2018, at the age of 93, in Shanghai.