(b Suzhou, Jiangsu province, 2 June 1928; d 6 March 1984). Chinese Suzhou tanci ballad singer. Xu Lixian became a professional musician at 11, performing first with the foster couple to whom her impoverished natural parents had sold her. Her repertory at this time included folksongs, various excerpts from tanci and local opera, and contemporary popular songs.
In 1953 Xu Lixian joined the Shanghai People’s Pingtan Troupe (Shanghai Shi Renmin Pingtan Gonguzuotuan), encountering there many of the principal singers of the time. Her vocal style at this time combined the melodic character of Jiang Yuequan with the variation techniques of Xu Yunzhi. Xu Lixian was active both in the development of new repertory, such as a chronicle of the female revolutionary hero in The New Ballad of Mulan (Xin Mulan ci) (1959), and in the maintenance of the old. Among her innovations was the use of duet passages (tanci had formerly relied on solo singing, sometimes shared between two singers) in the ballad After the Bumper Harvest (Fengshou zhi hou) (1963).
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) Xu, like other Suzhou tanci musicians, was unable to perform. Resuming performance in 1978, her style after this enforced break was more experimental, setting aside traditional melodic and modal patterns in favour of a more individualistic compositional style. Over her whole career, Xu composed more than 6o large-scale ballads as well as many shorter works.
See also China, §IV, 1(ii).
Shanghai pingtan tuan, ed.: Xu Lixian changqiang xuan [Selected songs of Xu Lixian] (Shanghai, 1979)
Pan Huizhu: Innovation within Tradition: the Tanci (Chinese Suzhou Narrative Music) Style of Xu Lixian (MA thesis, U. of Maryland, Baltimore, 1988)
Zhongguo yinyue cidian, xubian [Dictionary of Chinese music, supplementary vol.], YYS pubn (Beijing, 1992), 211
PENG BENLE