Tang Mei-yun

Tang Mei-yun (born July 14, 1964) is a Taiwanese opera performer. She was once the leading “sheng” (male) role in the Holo Taiwanese Opera Troupe. She founded the Tang Mei Yun Taiwanese Opera Company in 1998 and is dedicated to creating new Taiwanese opera productions and exploring different performance styles. Her career spans across various fields, including TV dramas, movies, stage productions, and commercials. Tang has won numerous awards, including the Best Leading Actress in a Television Series at the 36th Golden Bell Award, the 16th National Award for Arts, the Best Performer at the 29th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music, and the National Cultural Award.
== Biography ==
Tang's father Chiang Wu-tung, whose original name was Ichiro Morita, was the son of a Japanese family in Taiwan during Japanese colonial period. He was entrusted by his birth parents to be raised by Jiang Chou and his wife Jiang Wu-qin. However, following his parents' death in a shipwreck, he ended up staying in Tainan. Chiang Wu-tung became an apprentice in Taiwanese opera at the age of 14 and won acclaim for himself around his 20s, getting the name of “Primus in Taiwanese Opera.” Tang took her mother's surname, whose stage name was Tang Yen-chiu. Tang Mei-yun’s parents established the Bao An Opera Troupe during the 1970s, a period when Taiwanese opera was on the decline in Taiwan.
Tang did not intend to pursue a career in Taiwanese opera. However, due to unavoidable circumstances, she dropped out of junior high school and started helping out in her family's troupe. In 1981, she joined a group of Taiwanese opera performers to perform in Southeast Asia and received guidance from local Nanguan opera master Li Hsiang-shih in Manila, the Philippines. After returning to Taiwan, she started her formal study in Taiwanese opera and later studied Peking opera movements under Chang Hui-chuan at the Haiguang Opera School. Tang has a unique vocal style in singing traditional opera and is particularly skilled in Tsa Nien tunes and Tu Ma tunes.
In the early years of her career, Tang Mei-yun joined her mother’s Hsiu Chi Opera Troupe, and later joined the Mailiao club (Gong Le She), in which she mainly performed outdoor. Meanwhile, Tang began her career in TV Taiwanese opera in the 1980s. In 1989, Tang participated in a nationwide joint performance by elite Taiwanese opera performers and made her debut on the stage of the National Theater in Tieh Tan Jou Ching Yen Nan Fei. In 1991, Tang won the Best Xiaosheng in the Northern Taiwan Theater Competition for the same play, representing Yi-Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe. In turn, she was recruited as the leading xiaosheng by the Holo Taiwanese Opera Troupe. Within around nine years, Tang Mei-yun established her position in the field of performing arts. Starting in 1994, Tang served as a lecturer in the subject of Taiwanese opera at the National Fu Hsing Experimental School of Theatre Arts (now National Taiwan College of Performing Arts), and became the head of the subject in 1998. In the same year, in hopes of discovering the new breakthrough for Taiwanese opera, Tang began to organize her own troupe. In 1998, she founded the Tang Mei Yun Taiwanese Opera Company.
Category:1964 births
Category:Taiwanese opera
Category:Taiwanese people