Partners on Stage

Cai Ming and Guo Da are one of the best partnerships at the CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala night over the past 20 some years. On this particular stage， they have mostly appeared as husband and wife in various comic situations and many people mistake them as wife and husband in real life. But the star couple on the stage is not husband and wife.

Cai Ming

Upon her graduation from junior middle school in 1976， Cai Ming signed up with Beijing Film Studio as the youngest actress in the studio’s galaxy of professional actors. The talented youngster spent the next two years studying a special course at Beijing Film Academy before she came back and began to start her star career seriously.

Cai is actually a creative actor who can impersonate various kinds of characters in both tragic and comic situations. With a big repertoire of voice personalities， she has dubbed for many foreign films and animated films.

Her first appearance at CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala Night was in 1991 in partnership with Gong Hanlin， another evergreen actor in the same annual event since early 1990s up to 2010. It was in 1993 that Cai Ming and Guo Da jointly found a success formula. Their wife-husband comedy made audience laugh and won the nation over.

Behind the success of Cai Ming is her husband Ding Qiuxing. Cai Ming owes her success and national fame to her husband’s unselfish support all these years. Ding was a graduate of directing from Beijing Film Academy. A talented director on the rise， he had directed many television galas， television films and documentaries. Cai and Ding met in 1983 in an evening gathering of artists and actors in Beijing. They fell in love and got married in 1985. In July 1986， their son Ding Ding came into this world. It was at this time that a family of two full-time professionals seemed to have difficulties for the future. They could have hired a nanny to look after the baby boy so that both could get on with their careers. But both agreed that they should spend time with the son. Ding thought Cai had a better opportunity to be more successful so that he offered to run a normal workload so that he would have more time to do the house chores. He gave up directing assignments and kept normal work hours. He gave up more than directing assignments. In 1989， he got an offer to study for two years in France， but he turned it down.

While doing all the house chores， Ding also serves as his wife’s advisor. Ding firmly believed Cai had the potential for becoming a comedy star and therefore encouraged her to develop in that direction. Cai Ming appeared in many films in the 1980s. With her husband’s suggestion， she took her comedies more seriously. He knew some of the audience mistook Cai Ming and her partner as wife and husband， but he said it was most normal in acting and people mistaking them as a couple meant they were really good actors.

Guo Da

The first national impression Guo Da made on the stage was a rural rice vendor who comes to a city and tries to barter rice for flour， an image he created at CCTV on New Year’s Day in 1991. This funny skit ushered him into an era when the whole nation had just rediscovered humor on a national scale. He catapulted into national fame with this short comedy. Since then he has been an evergreen presence at CCTV’s annual Spring Festival Gala night.

Guo Da was born in June 1954. His father died 28 days after Guo Da was born， leaving him a violin. The 28-year-old mother raised him up and it was not until he went to school that he learned to play the violin.

Guo Da went to Shanghai Drama Academy in 1974， graduated three years later and became a drama actor with Shangxi Drama Troupe. For ten years he appeared in 30 dramas. Year 1984 marked a turning point in Chinese entertainment history. That year， Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao staged their epoch-making skit “Eating Noodle”， ushering in the comedy genre that has been popular since then. After watching “Eating Noodle” in 1984 and “Police and Thief” in 1985 by the winning duo， Guo Da thought that he had done similar improvisations at the entrance examination in 1974. He thought he could do it again. He created a skit named “Waiting outside the Delivery Room”. It was a huge success with the provincial audiences in Shangxi. CCTV chose it for its 1987 Spring Festival gala and Guo Da became a national figure overnight. Guo Da then came to Beijing and focused on comedies as his career development. In 1990 he partnered with Cai Ming and they appeared at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1993. They have appeared in the gala night over sixteen times over the past 17 years.

Guo Da’s wife Wu Fang used to be his colleague at the Shangxi Drama Troupe. As a costume designer， she designed the costume Guo Da wore in his successful skit in 1986 and made some suggestions that helped him win the overnight fame. In 1987， Guo Da went to Beijing to stage his first national comedy. Wu brought their kid back to her hometown in Shandong Province so that they could stay with the family. Wu gave her husband 150 yuan in cash for the Spring Festival， as expenses for his stay and performance in Beijing.

The successful partnership ran into difficulty once. For some reason， they each partnered with someone else. Audiences just didn’t respond to new efforts. Cai Ming and Guo Da resumed their teamwork. They have enjoyed their star performances on CCTV since then.

Guo Da comments on the success of his partnership with Cai Ming this way: “Our team owes its success to our respective families. Cai Ming has a model husband at home and I have my better half that supports me heart and soul.”

Beside the successful shows at Spring Festival galas， Cai Ming and Guo Da have also appeared in various television dramas， many of which are comedies. □