Keeping up with tradition

Zhang was trained by Peking Opera master Zhao Rongchen and keeps up the traditions of the "Cheng school", a performing style founded by Cheng Yanqiu (1904-58)－one of the four major performing styles of Peking Opera that emerged in the early 20th century.

Like Mei, Cheng mastered the techniques of men playing female roles, known as nandan. The "Cheng school" is known for interpreting tragic female roles with frequent changes in rhythm.

"Farewell My Concubine is well-known for being performed in the style of Mei. Now, I am adapting it to the performing style of Cheng, which is very challenging. The two styles of tones, gestures and movements are very different. There have been many occasions over the past 10 years when I considered dropping the idea of adapting the piece entirely, but the notion just lingered in my mind," says Zhang.

Born in Baicheng, Northeast China's Jilin province, Zhang was introduced to traditional Chinese opera by her father, who was a performer of Pingju Opera, a traditional opera form popular in northern China. Her elder brother, Zhang Huoqian, began studying Peking Opera as a child. Zhang Huoding was trained to play qingyi－"graceful female roles".

Zhang Huoding fell in love with Farewell My Concubine after she was enrolled to study Peking Opera at an art school in Tianjin at the age of 15.

"The loyalty and love she felt for her man really touched me," says Zhang of the role, Yu Ji. When Xiang Yu realizes that he has lost his battle and is ready to spend his last night with Yu Ji, the concubine kills herself with Xiang Yu's sword to express her faithfulness.

In 1989, after graduating from the school in Tianjin, Zhang joined a military Peking Opera troupe in Beijing. From 1995 to 2008, she performed with the National Peking Opera Company. The 48-year-old now teaches at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing.

In 2016, the academy launched a project that enabled Zhang to mentor young female Peking Opera students of the Cheng style.