The heyday of Peking Opera is perhaps when "'Four Great Dan Actors" reigned the stage. The four actors were Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun ( 1899-1976),
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| The four great dan player: Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng. | Cheng Yanqiu (1904-1958) and Xun Huisheng (1900-1968). They were all male actors but played female roles on the stage. With male bodies, they were able to play dozens of female characters vividly. They won unprecedented acclaim when they were active on the stage. Male audiences liked the images of women they played, and female audiences marveled at their ability to play women. Their collective brilliance has shone in the history of Peking Opera, and they have had no match so far.
These renowned impersonators of the female role were born in an era when there were neither female performers nor female audiences. For an opera company composed of male actors only, female characters could be played only by men who looked like women. These actors might look like women, but likeness was by no means assured in acting. They needed to learn to act like females. A male actor's body might not be as slender and supple as a woman's, but he can make up for that with postures and movements characteristic of a woman. In the classical Chinese theater, women wear clothes with long sleeves, complying with customs of an era when a woman was not allowed to reveal her hands. When a woman did reveal her hand+ a host of finger skills indicated her intentions. With long sleeves and finger skills+ a hand on the stage becomes an important means of expression and becomes more beautiful than the natural hand. Male actors were popu
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| Chen Delin (1826-1930) was a grand dan actor of early era. | lar also because they were better at stylized running, dancing and acrobatic fighting. Aesthetic requires the quality of being "just right." But Peking Opera goes a bit over the just-right threshold. In a certain sense, this is perhaps because appreciation of the beautiful in Peking Opera has a male tilt.
In the Chinese mainland from the mid- 1950s cultivation of male dan impersonators once stopped . This was caused by the query: "What's wrong with men playing male roles and women playing female roles?" As a result, boys who could become good dan players lost learning opportunities. It is not until the 1980s that bias against men playing female roles began gradually going away, and there appeared again a social environment in which boys with good natural conditions to become dan impersonators had the opportunity to learn Peking Opera. Today, there are many amateur Peking Opera actors who like to play female roles, but because of a lack of training at a young age, few of them are qualified for regular performances.
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| In the 1920s the six best-known dan impersonators took turns in playing two look-alike ladies in the same play. | The biggest miracle comes from the Mei Lanfang clan. Mei Baojiu, Mei Lanfang's youngest son, began learning Peking Opera at the age of 10 and gave performance from the age of 13. The young Mei learned skills from his father and a host of master Peking Opera performers. They include Xiao Changhua (1878-1967, a well-known clown-role player, who served as chief trainer for the famous Xi Lian Cheng Company for 36 years), Jiang Miaoxiang (1890-1972, well known for playing young scholars), and Yu Zhenfei ( 1902-1993, a master kunqu opera actor, able to sing in more than 200 kunqu operas, who specialized in playing young scholars in Peking Opera after the age of 30). In singing in particular, Mei Baojiu is generally acknowledged to be the best successor to the Mei Lanfang School of Peking Opera performance. Mei Baojiu has a rich, sweet voice, sings or declaims clearly and accurately and acts in a dignified and poised way. In costumed appearance with full makeup, he is very much like his father, the unrivalled Peking Opera master. His performances in the 1980s reminded people of old - age Mei Lanfang. Later, he worked h ard to restore some plays performed by his father in his young and middle age.
In many other Asian countries, it is not rare to find men playing female roles. In the history of Peking Opera, the popularity of male actors playing the dan role was connected with strict restrictions on women's scope of activities imposed by the feudal ethical code. In modem times, along with the promotion of equality of men and women and
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| A singing performance at Xiao Guang Han Teahouse in Shanghai in the 1910s and 1920s. | as stage performance by women was subject to increasingly less restrictions and accusation, there has been less barrier to women playing female roles in Peking Opera.
Male dan impersonators were once censured by the public. One reason for this is that in the early period of Peking Opera's development, there was a social evil connected with male dan impersonators - high officials and noble lords, using their power, forced some male dan actors to take part in homosexual activities.
At the end of the 19'h century, women began acting in Peking Opera in Shanghai. Female performers then appeared in Tianjin and Wuhan. In 1912, acting by women had also come to Beijing but it was banned in the following year. It is not until 193! that acting by women and men on the same stage was restored. And "'Four Queens," four actresses elected as the best female role players in 1930, posed a challenge to male dan impersonators. One of the best actresses in Peking Opera was Yan Huizhu (1919-1966), who learned acting from Mei Lanfang. A famous actress after her was Du Jinfang. |
