Mei Lanfang—Queen of Beijing Opera

    Beijing Opera (also calls Peking Opera) is known as one of the three main theatrical systems in the world. An introduction to Peking Opera would not be complete without mentioning female impersonator Mei Lanfang (1894-1961). Mei was one of the most famous Peking Opera artists in modern history, especially his dan (旦) female role, which particularly male actors perform female role. Traditionally only men performed in Peking Opera, including the female roles. And Mei Lanfang was the very best master of the miss.

     Actually, the name Mei Lanfang was a given name from his master when he was eleven years old. In Chinese, it contains three characters and each one has its own meaning. Mei(梅)is plum blossom; Lan(兰)is orchids; and Fang(芳)means fragrant in Chinese. Each word just describes how he became a great artist, a great patriot, and a great person in Chinese history, even in the world.

.    Mei(梅)—Plum blossom

Plum blossom earns a reputation for being fearless of severe cold, and Mei Lanfang also did for being fearless of hardship.

Mei was born in Beijing in 1894 into a family of Peking opera. When he was eight years old, Mei began studying dan role at the Peking opera and made his stage debut at eleven, playing a weaving girl. For his beginning, it was not just easy. Mei's first master said that he does not have a pair of flexible eyes, however, those are very important for an outstanding artist. As for that, Mei took this challenge and started to practice his eyes. From friends' recommendation, Mei began to raise pigeon and watched them flying every morning to improve flexibility of his eyes. After a few years, Mei finally got a pair of bright flexible eyes. When he was 20, Mei had already had countless audiences. "To see a World in a Grain of Sand, [a]nd a Heaven in a Wild Flower" (William Blake). So it is with Mei. To see Mei in his efforts not just shiny appearance and great achievement.

.    Lan(兰)—Orchid

In ancient Greece, orchids were associated with virility. And ancient Chinese revered orchids as "Lan Hua" epitome of human perfection and strength (Rezz). For Mei, he did have this lofty morality in his career. In July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident occurred. The imperial Japanese Army soon occupied Beijing. Due to Mei's several cultural exchanges with Japan, Mei was very popular with Japanese audiences. At that time, the commander of the Japanese Army ordered Mei to perform for them in order to celebrate their periodical success and also appointed Mei to a high rank official position. But Mei grew a beard to refuse singing throughout the duration of the war and endured an impoverished lifestyle until the war ended in 1945. During that time, Mei's family made a living by selling Mei's paintings and calligraphy works. Because of patriotism, Mei refused his affectionate acting career; because of a nation, Mei refused any invitations from rival Japan. One Japanese commander abused him like a bitch on the stage, but Mei responded to commander that he is a real man out of stage. Mei recollected the experience of this period in his autobiography My Forty Years of Stage Life that he will never lose national integrity even facing starvation (M. Lanfang).

.    Fang(芳)—aroma

Mei Lanfang's acting career bloomed like a piece of brocade and sent out very attractive aroma. Singing, dancing, and acting are the three main components of the traditional Chinese opera. Mei Lanfang became highly accomplished at all of them. He turned himself into a performer of almost all types of the "Dan" female roles and thoroughly broke the rigid distinction between Qingyi, the dignified, graceful female, and the vivacious young female "Huadan" (Guangdong University). The Qingyi usually walks in a sedate fashion, with one hand on her stomach and the other hanging at one side. Such a character was only asked to sing well, while the Huadan were supposed to have lively facial expressions and gestures (Tian, Min). Mei Lanfang, who was adept at both, combined the two, redefining female roles. After many years of effort, he enabled the Dan to occupy a very important place in Peking Opera, with a clear-cut form for new comers to follow and develop, especially showing in his work, Du Liniang and Youyuanxifeng. As his great influence in Peking opera, Mei Lanfang has been classified as Four Great Dan in the golden era of Peking Opera with Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng. And also China's Peking Opera named after Mei Lanfang is regarded as the representative of oriental opera performance system, which makes up the "Three Performing Systems in the World" together with Russia's Stanislavski System and Germany's Brecht System (Banu,Georges).

    In over fifty years on stage, Mei Lanfang played no less than hundred different characters in Peking opera. He revolutionized stage make-up and costumes, systemized and enriched characters' gestures, expressions and poses. Meanwhile, he also created many new plays like Bai Suzhen, Beauty Yu and so on. Among of them, Mei's famous portrayal of Beatuy Yu was so historically moving that Wenting Song say he is one of the greatest vocal artists in modern China (W,Zuguang).

     After China's Liberation War, Mei served as directed of China Beijing Opera Theater, director of the Chinese Opera Reacher Institute, and vice-chairman of China Federation of Literary Art Circles (W, Zuguang). In his life, Mei had entertained over six thousand distinguished foreign guests at his residence in Beijing, such as the Swedish crown prince. Mei Lanfang had also been many times to countries like Japan, America, and former Soviet Union to spread the art of Peking Opera and Chinese culture. He had communicated with many world-famous writers and artists. Therefore Mei could also be deserved the title of China's "Cultural Ambassador"(SY Kim).

     As Mei own words, obtaining is my lucky but losing is my fortune. When he was doing a speech in Peking University, one student asked him how he became so great in Peking opera. His answer was very simple, just "Never do the shortcut". Indeed, never do the shortcut no matter of learning one skill or learning how to be just like Mei's whole life.

Works cited

Banu,Georges. Ella L. Wiswell and June V. Gibson. Mei Lanfang:   

“A Case against and a Model for the Occidental Stage”. Asian  

Theatre Journal. Vol. 3, No. 2 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 153-178.

University of Hawai'i Press.

M. Lanfang. “Wutai shenghuo sishi nian (My Forty Years of Stage

     Life)”. 2 vols. 1952. Shanghai: Pingming Press

Renz. “The Meaning and Symbolism of ORCHID”. Worldpress,  

     February 13,2010

SY, Kim. “From Imperial Concubine To Model Maoist: The 

     Photographic Metamorphosis of Mei Lanfang”. Theatre

     Research International, Cambridge University Press. 2006

Tian, Min. “The Poetics of Difference and Displacement:  

     Twentieth-Century Chinese-Western Intercultural Theatre”

     Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008

Tian, Min. ed. “China's Greatest Operatic Male Actor of Female

     Roles: Documenting the Life and Art of Mei Lanfang”. 1894-

     1961. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. 2010.

Wang,Wing. “Mei Lanfang - a Peking opera legend”.Culture and

     Education column, Guangdong University Press. June 24,2003 

W, Zuguang, L Mei, “Peking Opera and Mei Lanfang: A Guide to

     China's Traditional Theatre and the Art of Its Great

     Master”. New World Press. 1981.