Chen Qiaoru (center) leads performers in answering the curtain call at the end of a recent performance. Provided to China Daily

It is 1: 30 pm. Chen Qiaoru is holding her lunch in a bowl in the rehearsal hall of the Sichuan Opera Theatre in Chengdu. Gulping down rice, she keeps a close eye on an 18-year-old actress rehearsing on stage.

"Your movement is too flexible. It has to be stiffer, "Chen demanded, putting aside her bowl and heading to the stage to correct her movement.

It is normal for the 47-year-old to have a working lunch as she is often preoccupied with rehearsals or coaching young performers.

The two-time winner of the Plum Blossom Prize, China's top drama performance award, has been devoted to the Sichuan Opera for 35 years.

Chen's parents were Sichuan Opera performers and at the tender age of 12 she started learning the intricacies of opera in the Sichuan Opera troupe in her mountainous home county of Xuyong, in Sichuan.

Thanks to her talent and hard work Chen became an early star. Longing for a bigger stage, Chen left the county for Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, when she was 16.

Learning from Zhang Guangru, a leading Sichuan Opera actress in Chengdu over a period of four years, Chen performed in the Good Sichuan People, in Beijing in 1987.