Yan Dandan (center) and other troupe members apply makeup backstage before a performance. Photos by Liu Xiangrui / China Daily

An 18-year-old opera performer represents both the past and future of traditional Chinese opera, according to Liu Xiangrui.

Yan Dandan has lived like a gypsy from an early age and made her debut on the opera stage at 9.

As the youngest member of her Sichuan Opera troupe, from Qingquan in suburban Chengdu, 18-year-old Yan has traveled across Sichuan, following in the footsteps of her parents, who are both performers.

She dropped out of school to ease the family's financial burden and allow her younger sister to live with their aunt and attend school.

After concluding a two-and-half-hour performance she lies on her narrow bed and plays with her cellphone, while recounting her life.

"I was very curious and excited at first," Yan says of her apprenticeship, before admitting it was tough process.

To meet the strict requirements of her parents, she had to endlessly repeat movements and vocalizations. She says learning acrobatics was, literally, physical torture.

The hard work, however, paid off. Yan recalls how she stood on the stage with her father for the first time at 9 and acted in Lady White Snake, a popular traditional play.

"I remember the day well," says Yan's mother, Deng Hong, 44. "Her small figure was a contrast to the adults on stage and quite funny. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I kept telling people around me, 'That's my daughter, that's my daughter!'"

"She is a quick learner, and a gifted singer and actor," Deng adds.

Yan can do acrobatic fighting, which is generally done by men, and often plays wudan, a woman lead in fight scenes.

She says the role of Lady White Snake is so far her most successful.

"I cry every time I play the role, and I just can't control myself," she says, laughing. But, she adds, the role she enjoys most is the "shrew", which she says resonates with her lively nature.

Nevertheless, her art is a job and it is difficult for Yan and the troupe to support themselves financially.

"Sometimes I am exhausted. But as soon as I get ready for the next scene, I have to focus and invigorate myself."

She recalls having a bad stomachache on one occasion when taking the lead role, but had to hold back the pain. Since the troupe is a small one, she sometimes has to take up to six roles in one play.

Every evening the troupe rehearses for the next day's performance and new ideas are introduced to amuse the audience.

"I feel free to improvise on stage," Yan says.

She realizes her life is different from most of her peers and says of her acrobatic fighting and face changing skills: "I feel proud that I know something they don't, but I envy their steady lives."

Spring Festival is a tiring period as it is when she is most busy, while living the life of a gypsy, moving from place to place, is exhausting, she says.

"I don't like moving around. I always want to stay in one place for longer," she confides.

She recalls that a village once invited them to perform but suddenly canceled. Having no place to stay for the night, the troupe camped out on the steps of a shabby old temple.

"It was a cold and rainy winter night," Yan says of the occasion, when she was 11. "We were in the darkness, while the rest of the world was celebrating the New Year."

Living such a life, she has few friends of her own age. A fellow performer in her 30s is her best friend.

"We're similar in nature. Sometimes I think she is even closer to my heart than my parents," she says.

She avoids contact with the audience members, most of whom are elderly. "I'm clumsy with words. So as not to offend them, I talk less."

Occasionally she is invited to perform at business events or celebrations and the troupe can charge up to five times as much as for a single performance.

She believes her life has made her grow up quickly and has considered leaving the troupe, if only to get away from the family environment she knows so well, and has been offered the opportunity to perform with bigger troupes.

"I'm eager to venture out and try something different. But my mother is worried that I am too young to be on my own."

Deng says she wants to protect Yan.

"My husband and I have been living in the opera world for decades. We don't know what else we can do, and will just take things as they come. But she is still young, and I hope she can try something better," says Deng, who started her own performing life at 15.

Zhao Gang, who directed a documentary about traveling troupes, says Yan's future choices represent the current state of the once-popular art form.

"Growing up in such an environment, she is both deeply influenced by the traditional art and modern life. Sometimes they conflict," Zhao says.

"From Yan we will see if the young are willing to carry on this traditional art form."

Yan is preparing to study at Sichuan's provincial opera college in September, from which she may graduate to join a State-funded troupe.

"I love the opera. After all, it has been part of my life for the past 10 years," Yan says. "I'll often return to help my mother as a guest performer, and enjoy my moments on the stage."

Contact the writer at liuxiangrui@chinadaily.com.cn.

Li Yu in Sichuan contributed to the story.

Yan Dandan gets ready for her wudan role in a fight scene during a performance.

(China Daily 04/09/2013 page20)