By her own admission, Xia Yi is a bit of a tomboy at heart. But thanks to her training in Peking Opera she becomes as feminine as anyone could wish for from the moment she steps onstage
It was happenstance that Xia Yi, who still claims that she "can't sing," ended up on Funny Very Much. The program was originally due to feature a series of star vocalists giving special classes, and Xia's job was to translate Taiwanese songs into Shanghainese and then teach them to the singers. As the date for the first program approached, however, it became clear that it would take the singers too long to learn their songs. Instead, Xia herself had to take on the task of fronting the show. She had no idea that there would be such a fantastic reaction, and she hasn't stopped doing the program ever since.
Xia Yi was born into a family of renowned Peking Opera performers, and her grandmother was the only female student of Shang Xiaoyun, from the Shang school-one of the four main schools-of Peking Opera. When Xia was a little girl almost all the adults around her were Peking Opera stars, but during the Cultural Revolution, when opera was targeted for sustained attack, Xia's mother prevented her from learning the art. However, opera was well and truly in her blood. At the age of 15 she appealed for support from her relatives in her quest to study opera, and her mother finally relented. In order to make up for lost time she underwent intensive instruction with eight of the most illustrious masters of Peking Opera. At 17 she won a national television prize for opera performance, and at 19 she earned the coveted Meihua Award. Her signature piece was the scene from Madame White Snake called "Stealing the Celestial Herbs."
Xia visibly brightens at the mention of Peking Opera. She's eager to work alongside mainland troupes again, and also wants to bag another Meihua Award. And while her current celebrity in Taiwan has brought in some interesting offers (one from a frozen shuijiao producer willing to pay big bucks if she'll appear in the firm's commercials as it breaks into the mainland market) she continues to reserve her options for the time being. "On the mainland, everyone knows that what I do is sing opera. If I let them find out I've been giving singing lessons on telly in Taiwan, it's going to look really trashy." For Xia Yi, maintaining her image as a stage star is still the first consideration.
Xia Yi sings with unique feeling, as everyone agrees, and several record companies are after her to do a CD of the songs that she has taught on Three-Links Classroom.
"I leave all that to the production company to decide," says Xia without batting an eyelid. "I just want to teach well, and sing well."