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| A 1917 theatrical program featuring performances by Tan Xinpei and Mei Lanfang. | Mei Lanfang enjoyed international as well as domestic fame as a Peking Opera actor. The Chinese theater represented by Mei, and the theatrical arts of Konstantin Stanislavski of Russia and Bertolt Brecht of Germany are regarded as the world's three great performing systems. It should be ascribed to him that Peking Opera was known to the rest of the world.
Mei Lanfang, whose ancestral home was in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, was born into a family of Peking Opera performers in Beijing. He began learning acting at the age of eight, mainly the dan (female) role, and at the age of 10 played in The Marriage of the Fair3" Princess (tian xian pei) at Guanghe Theater in Beijing. In 1908, he entered the Xi Lian Cheng Opera Company. In a public poll of Peking Opera actors in 1911 in Beijing, Mei won the third place. In 1913 he staged performances in Shanghai for the first time, appearing in a host of plays including Romance of the Painted Building (cai Iou pei), Yu Tang Chun the Courtesan (yu tang chun) and Mu¡¯s Village Fortress (mu ke zai). He caused a great sensation in south China.
"A good wife should be like Mei Lanfang, and a good son like Zhou Xinfang" was a popular saying circulating in Shanghai at the time, indicating his great popularity. In 1915, Mei rehearsed a host of new plays. After his return to Beijing, Mei staged a modern-costumed new play called Upheaval in
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| Mei Lanfang receiving French guests at his residence in Beijing. | a Sea Of Evils (nie hai bo lan) and rehearsed more new plays, including Lady Chang E Flies to the Moon (chang e ben yue), Chun Xiang Upsets the Stud~' (chun xiang nao xue) and Daiyu Buo'ing Flowers (daiyu zang hua). In 1916, Mei Lanfang went to Shanghai for the third time and performed for 45 consecutive days. In 1918, at the peak of his performing career, he moved to Shanghai, where he staged shows at the Tianchan Theater.
Mei Lanfang absorbed Shanghai's modern drama, new-style stage, lighting, makeup and costume, assimilated the acting styles of different dan roles, made innovations in singing, recitation, dancing, music and costuming, and created a graceful, mellow and smooth singing style. He created the Mei School.
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| Poster advertising a color film in which Mei Lanfang played the lead role. | Mei had a sweet, resonant voice, which is rare in a male actor. Aside from inheriting traditional tunes, Mei composed a great number of new, unique melodies. Thanks to his innovation, some rarely used traditional arias won great popularity. And he made a point of suiting his singing to different roles and plots. His recitation was rhythmic and clear. The higher the voice was pitched , the sweeter and mellower it became. From his recitations, audiences could hear happiness, anger, worry, sorrow and fright. In acting, aside from using movements from kunqu opera, Mei created a host of dances, including satin dance, sword dance, sleeve dance, dusting dance and feather dance. At the same time, he incorporated dancing movements in his acting in some otherwise dance-free plays. As a result, every move he made on the stage was graceful and
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| Mei Lanfang playing a wu sheng. | beautiful. When he performed in a play with a lot of acrobatic fighting, fighting was combined with dancing. And generally speaking, there was more dancing than fighting. This is another breakthrough.
In 1919, Mei Lanfang, at the invitation of the Imperial Theater in Tokyo, went to Japan and performed Peking Opera there for a month. Plays he staged there include The Maiden in Heaven Showering Flowers (tian nu san hua) and Romance of the Jade Hairpin (yu zan ji).
In 1921, with help from Qi Rushan (1877-1962), a well-known opera expert, Mei wrote and performed a well-known play called Farewell My Concubine (ba wang bie ji). From 1922, Mei became head of Cheng Hua Opera Company. Borrowing elements from ancient paintings of beauties and statues of female deities, Mei made creative innovations in the facial makeup, headgear and costume of characters. Even in the use of musical instruments, Mei tried bold reforms, too. For example, he used the erhu (two-stringed Chinese fiddle with a gentle sound) as a supplement to the jinghu (Peking Opera fiddle with a high sound) so as to accompany the singing by the dan (female) role. Mei made unique contributions to Peking Opera in singing, recitation, acting, acrobatic fighting, dancing,
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| Mei Lanfang in Drunken Beauty (gui fei zui jiu), one of his representative plays. | facial expression, music, costume and stage art.
In 1927, in a public selection of dan actors sponsored by a newspaper in Beijing, Mei Lanfang ranked among the "Four Great Dan Actors," the other three being Cheng Yanqiu , Shang Xiaoyun and Xun Huisheng. In 1931, after the "September 18" Incident which marked the beginning of Japanese invasion of northeast China, Mei Lanfang promoted patriotism by staging Resisting Jin Invaders (kang jin bing) and Life-and-Death Hatred (sheng si hen) in Shanghai. During the Second World War, when Japan occupied part of China, Mei Lanfang grew a beard and lived a secluded life, refusing to perform.
In the spring of 1930, Mei Lanfang went to the United States at the head of his theatrical company and put up performances in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, to resounding successes. During the period, Pomona College and University of Southern California awarded him honorary doctorate degrees in literature. In 1935, he put up shows in Europe with his company and examined foreign theatrical art. Among Peking Opera artists, Mei Lanfang staged the most performances abroad and received the most visiting foreign artists. He displayed Peking Opera art and the modesty and simplicity of Chinese artists to foreigners and won their appreciation.
In 1950 Mei Lanfang moved back to Beijing from Shanghai for permanent settlement. His representative plays are The Drunken Beauty" (gui fei zui jiu), The Maiden in Heaven Showering Flowers (tian nu san hua), The Heaven-and-Earth Blade (yu zhou feng) and The Fisherman¡¯s Revenge (da yu sha jia). And he trained more than 100 performers.
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