Mr Mei Lanfang, the master of Peking Opera (1894—1961), he was born in Beijing into a family associated with the Peking opera , his grandfather Mei Qiaoling was a famous Beijing QingYi and HuaDan actor (female roles in Peking Opera, usually a faithful wife , lover or maiden). When he was young, his parents died, he was supported by his uncle. At the age of eight, he began to learn the Opera. He adopted Wu Lingxian as his teacher in the following year, who taught him QingYi. Then he made his stage debut in 1904 when he was ten years old. From 1907, he accompanied Ye Chunshan’s theatrical troupe which was called “Xi Lian Cheng”. In 1913, he performed in Shanghai with great success . Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Xun Huisheng and Cheng Yanqiu were known as the Four Great “Dan” in the golden era of the Peking Opera, Mei is the first .
Although he became famous as a child, he remained modest, he listened to the suggestions of his mentor Qi Rushan, he further developed a new performing mode which combined QingYi with HuaDan. He had the courage to break through the traditional cage, and made continuous innovation and improvement on the opera stage, he created a unique style of performing arts, this style has come to be known in opera circles as the“Mei School.”
This series is a photo collection of the famous Peking opera artist Mei Lanfang’s , an extraordinary life story both on the stage and behind the scenes.
Photographers: Qi Guanshan, Ye Hua etc.
