Cheung Yuet-Yee 张月儿

Cheung Yuet-Yee (1907-1981), also known as Yuet-Yee, Yueying, formerly known as Cheung Guoxiong, was born in Xiecun, Shunde, Guangdong, and was a famous Hong Kong Cantonese opera veteran and actor. At the age of 11, she studied with musician Xu Guifu. Started singing on stage in Hong Kong at the age of 13. Her representative work is "Diva's Feast in Qionglin". Coinciding with the rise of the record industry, various record companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong recorded records for her, including "Butterfly Lovers", "Remains of the Flower Moon", "Kouhuahua", "Dog Meat Father", "Wanderer's Sad Autumn", "Love Flower". Records such as "Love Fruit", "Yingying Repays the Card", "Golden Flower", "Brothers in Distress", "Zi Huachang Looking for a Wife", etc. Later, the music composer He Shaoxia was invited to write "A Generation of Artists", which became famous and popular for a while. Her "Yue'er tune" is characterized by its strong volume and wide range. She can sing Cantonese opera with male and female dialogue at the same time, making her singing lively. She is good at singing harmonies, and she can also portray the character characteristics with a variety of different voices, so she is known as the "Queen of Ghost Horse Songs". Around the 1930s, Pinghou was known as the "Four Heavenly Kings" and "Four Heroes of Pinghou" together with Little Star, Xu Liuxian and Zhang Huifang because of her proficiency in singing Cantonese opera. Cheung Yuet-Yee was born in a scholarly family and has a certain level of poetry and lyrics. Her representative work is "A Generation of Artists": the theme of this song is to commemorate the movie star Ruan Lingyu who died in 1935. The lyrics include the titles of many movies starring Ruan Lingyu during her lifetime, including "Weeds and Flowers" ", "Peach Blossoms Weeping Blood", "New Women", "Spring in Yutang", "Spring Dream in the Old Capital", "Goddess", "Life", etc. Later, it was claimed that the movie "A Generation of Artists" (released in 1941) was based on this song, also starring Cheung Yuet-Yee . However, the singer Feng Gu played by her in the movie was completely not similar to Ruan Lingyu's experience. After the 1960s, Cheung Yuet-Yee was old and suffering from heart disease, but she continued to teach apprentices. Her last protégé was Ms. Yang Lihong, who came to Guangzhou to sing with the Hong Kong Xiangjiang Amateur Music Club and won high praise. Cheung Yuet-Yee devoted her whole life to the career of folk art. Unfortunately, she died of illness in Hong Kong on November 4, 1981 .