Recalling Xi's big welcome for artists Liu Xiurong

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the China National Peking Opera Company, retired Peking Opera actress Liu Xiurong gave a speech at the ceremony, which was held at Meilanfang Grand Theater in Beijing recently. Born in Fucheng county of Hebei province in 1935, she started learning Peking Opera at 12 years old. Now Liu is dedicated to training young Chinese Peking Opera actors as a guest professor of National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts. This article was first published by Guangming Daily on Thursday. Liu told a story about when she met with Xi Jinping, who is now China's president, during a tour about 30 years ago.

I was enrolled in the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 1949. After graduation, I started working at the China National Peking Opera Company in 1956. In March 1985, the China National Peking Opera Company founded its third troupe and I was assigned to be its director. There were 108 actors in the third troupe then.

During a tour in 1985, accommodations were very poor and we had to sleep behind the stage in the theater and cook for ourselves. Every actor got paid 5 yuan (80 cents) for each performance and the food allowance was 3 yuan per day for each actor. We just cooked some vegetables to save money, but everyone was happy and devoted to the performance.