Guo Lanying, a Chinese operatic soprano who helped establish and popularize modern Chinese national opera, died in Guangzhou on Aug. 11, 2026, at 96, Lianhe Zaobao reported.
After seeing The White-Haired Girl in Zhangjiakou in 1945–46, she left a traditional Shanxi opera troupe and joined the North China United University arts troupe, moving into the modern Chinese opera tradition that emerged in the 1940s. From 1947 to 1949, she created the roles of Xi’er in The White-Haired Girl, Liu Hulan in Liu Hulan and Xiao Qin in The Marriage of Little Erhei. Her performances helped make these early national operas widely recognizable.
In 1956, she sang My Motherland, the theme song of the film Battle on Shangganling. Her recording became popular across China, and the song remained widely sung for generations. In 1959, she recorded People Say Shanxi Is a Beautiful Place for the film Our Village’s Young People; the song gained popularity through the film. She performed Nanniwan in the 1964 stage production The East Is Red, using a Chinese vocal style that drew on traditional singing techniques. Her rendition brought the long-circulating folk-revolutionary song to a major national stage.
After leaving the stage in 1982, she turned to music education. In 1987, she founded the Guo Lanying Art School in Panyu, Guangdong. She taught successive groups of students there, passing Chinese vocal and opera traditions to new performers. In September 2019, she received the People’s Artist title, a national honorary title recognizing her contribution to opera performance and vocal music.
