Li Yuru was born in Beijing on 25 July 1923 to Zheng Yuanlong and Li Yuxiu.
14 Facts About Li Yuru
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Li Yuru studied six days a week and was permitted family visits on Sundays.
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Li Yuru credited her later success to her school's eclectic training but Li's first performance was a disaster.
4.
Li Yuru woke at 6 each morning and took extra classes.
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Li Yuru organised a program of 62 new and traditional plays over a successful 48-day run in Shanghai, starring in 28 of them.
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Li Yuru studied under the female impersonators Yu Lianquan and Cheng Yanqiu.
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Li Yuru performed extensively within China and even toured the Soviet Union and Europe multiple times.
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Li Yuru's second daughter Li Ruru was born in 1952.
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Li Yuru was then beaten so severely that she died from the injuries.
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Li Yuru's daughters became sent-down youth, relocated to and forced to labour in the countryside.
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Li Yuru mentored younger actresses and taught students in master classes and seminars.
12.
Li Yuru first produced a full-length play, Love and Hatred, based on Wang Kui's betrayal of Jiao Guiying.
13.
Li Yuru wrote columns for the Xinmin Evening News and Wenhui Daily and, in 1992, serialised the novel Pinzi.
14.
Li Yuru published two books on Peking opera, both of which she wrote after her second operation for lung cancer in 2007.