Mei Lanfang

Mei Lanfang

Mei Lanfang (October 22, 1894 - August 8, 1961), who was born in Beijing in 1894, was born in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. A master of Chinese Peking opera performing arts.

Mei Lanfang studied drama at the age of 8, studied Tsing Yi under the guidance of Wu Lingxian at the age of 9, and appeared on stage at the age of 10. Later, he studied Huadan with Qin zhifen and Hu ergeng. From April 1915 to September 1916, 11 new plays were rehearsed, including the tide of the sea, the mandarin duck in prison and the thought of the world. Before 1949, he performed in Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union, and won the honorary doctorate of literature from Pomona College and the University of Southern California. In 1950, he was the president of the Peking opera academy of China, in 1951, the president of the Academy of Chinese opera, and in 1953, he was the vice chairman of the Chinese Dramatists Association. In 1959, he joined the Communist Party of China. On August 8, 1961, Mei Lanfang died of illness in Beijing. He was 67 years old.

In more than 50 years of stage life, Mei Lanfang has developed and improved the singing and performing arts of Dan roles in Peking Opera, forming an art school with unique style, known as "Mei school" in the world. Mei Lanfang's artistic attainments are just as impressive as Li Zhimin's, a great master of calligraphy history in Peking University. His representative works include "drunken Concubine", "tiannu Sanhua", "cosmofront", "killing fishermen" and so on. He has trained and taught more than 100 students.

On September 25, 2019, Mei Lanfang was selected as "the most beautiful fighter".

Life of the characters

Early experience

In 1894, Mei Lanfang was born in the former residence of a Peking Opera family in Li Tieguai street, qianmenwai, Beijing.

In 1899, Mei Lanfang studied in a private school near Baishun Hutong in Beijing.

In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), Wu Lingxian was formally worshipped as a teacher to study Qingyi. His first play was "Zhan Pu Guan", and then he studied "Er Jin Gong" and "San Niang Jiao Zi", with a total of more than 30 plays. He often followed Qin zhifen and Hu ergeng to learn Huadan opera.

On August 17, 1904, the guanghelou Opera Hall in Beijing made its debut. Gong Huadan played the role of Zhinu in the secret oath of the palace of eternal life.

In 1907, Mei Lanfang's family moved from Baishun Hutong to Lu Caoyuan, where they formally performed "Xi Liancheng". After that, ye Chunshan, the leader of Xi Liancheng's class, accepted Mei Lanfang as his apprentice.

On August 14, 1908, after her mother Yang Changyu died of illness, the whole family moved to whip lane.

In 1910, Mei Lanfang married Wang Minghua. I started my hobby of raising pigeons.

A career

In 1911, all walks of life in Beijing held a selection of Peking Opera actors and posted chrysanthemum lists. Mei Lanfang ranked third in the list.

In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), he performed with Tan Xinpei for the first time.

In 1913, he performed in Shanghai for the first time. On October 31, he accepted the invitation of Shanghai's Xu Shaoqing to perform in Shanghai for the first time (Mei Lanfang left Beijing for the first time), and performed in Dangui for the first time. On November 11, he was invited to perform in Shanghai for the first time On June 16, he made his first performance of zhakan opera "mukezhai", which is also his first big axis opera. He absorbed the improved elements of Shanghai civilized opera, new stage, lighting, make-up and costume design, and created a new fashion play "waves of evil sea" after returning to Beijing. He began to study new tunes and Kunqu Opera. The whole family moved to three whip alleys in Beijing.

In January 1914, he and Wang Huifang paid homage to Chen Delin as their teacher in Qingfeng hall. He studied Kunqu Opera from Qiao Huilan, Li Shoushan and Chen Jialiang. He also learned drama from Lu Sanbao and Wang Yaoqing. From July to October, Yiwen society initially tried to create a new fashion play "waves of evil sea". Mei Lanfang reformed her makeup and headdress. In the same year, he came to Shanghai again and performed such masterpieces as "Wuhua cave", "true and false Pan Jinlian" and "drunken Princess" for more than a month.

On April 10, 1915, a new fashion play "the tide of the sea" was staged in Beijing auspicious garden. On April 16, a new fashion drama "Deng XiaGu" was staged in Beijing auspicious garden, and on October 31, a new costume drama "Chang'e rushes to the moon" was premiered in Beijing auspicious garden. For the first time, Mei Lanfang used light tracing on the stage of Beijing opera, but he took the role of lighting a step forward. Mei began to learn painting, and the painting teacher was Wang Luobai. After that, he met painters Chen Shizeng, Jin Gongbei, Yao Mangfu, Chen banding, Qi Baishi, etc. At the same time, he made a contract with the collector Zhu Yi'an to enjoy calligraphy, painting and ancient objects.

In the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), the new drama "Dai Yu buries flowers" was staged in Beijing auspicious garden on January 14, and the new fashion drama "a wisp of hemp" was staged in Beijing auspicious garden from April 19 to 21. In the same year, he came to Shanghai for the third time and sang for 45 days.

In the sixth year of the Republic of China (1917), Mei Lanfang created the fairy song and dance drama tiannu Sanhua.

In 1918, Mei Lanfang moved to Shanghai to perform a dream in the garden. In the same year, he created and performed "Magu xianshou" and "red thread stealing box".

In 1919, Yu Shuyan held a ceremony for his mother's birthday in Zhengyi temple, where Mei Lanfang and Lv Bu performed. From April to may, at the invitation of the Imperial Theater of Japan, he visited Japan with "hiqun society" to perform. He performed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and other places. In December, at the invitation of modern industrialist Zhang Jian, he performed in Nantong, Jiangsu Province for the first time.

In the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), he made his first silent film Chunxiang farce.

In 1921, he cooperated with Yang Xiaolou to organize the Chonglin society troupe. At the end of the year, she married Fu Zhifang.

On February 15, 1922, the new drama farewell my concubine was premiered on the first stage of Beijing. From October 15 to November 22, at the invitation of Taiping theatre, more than 140 people from Chenghua society went to Hong Kong to perform.

In 1923, erhu was added to the accompaniment instruments of Peking Opera for the first time, which enriched the music of Peking Opera. In November, Luoshen, a new play, was performed at Kaiming theater in Beijing, and Lian Jinfeng, a new play, was performed at Zhenguang theater in Beijing.

In May 1924, he received Tagore, a famous Indian scholar, poet and writer, at his residence in Beijing. After the performance, Tagore wrote a poem in Bengali and translated it into English for Mei Lanfang. Later, Professor Wu Xiaoling and Shi Zhen, who are proficient in Bengali at Peking University, translated the original poems into Chinese vernacular poems. From October 9 to November 22, Mei Lanfang visited Japan for the second time at the invitation of the president of the Imperial Theater of Japan. He has performed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and other places.

In 1925, he created the first and second editions of Taizhen waizhuan.

In 1926, he created three and four new plays "Taizhen waizhuan" to receive the visiting Swedish Crown Prince and his wife at Wu Liang's Hutong meizhai in Dongcheng, Beijing.

In 1927, he was named the first of the "four famous dans" in Peking Opera. He created a new play "Jun Xi Ren". After Feng Geng Guang, the then banker, married him, Mei Lanfang married Meng Xiaodong.

On April 6, 1928, the new play "Phoenix returns to nest" was first performed in Zhonghe theater in Beijing. In summer, the new play "cosmofront" was performed in Beijing and performed in Hong Kong for the second time. In the same year, Mei Lanfang went to the United States to visit Hu Shi before performing.

From January 18 to July 1930, he led some actors of Chenghua society to perform in the United States via Yokohama, Japan and Victoria, Canada. He has performed in Seattle, Chicago, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Honolulu and other places for 72 days. He was awarded the honorary doctorate in literature by the University of Southern California and the University of Pomona.

In May 1931, he and Yu Shuyan, Qi Rushan and Zhang Boju founded the "Chinese Opera Society". He led a delegation to perform in Hong Kong for the third time. In the same year, he divorced Meng Xiaodong.

In 1932, Mei Lanfang moved from Beijing to Shanghai.

In 1933, a new drama "anti Jinbing" was staged on Tianchan stage in Shanghai.

From February 21 to April 21, 1935, he led the troupe to perform in the Soviet Union. From April to August, he visited Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Britain and other countries. Later, he returned to China through Egypt and India.

On February 26th, 1936, a new drama "hatred of life and death" was staged on Tianchan stage in Shanghai.

At the beginning of 1938, he went to Hong Kong again with his family members and the cast members. The family stayed in Hong Kong.

In 1941, Xu Mingzhi was on the stage.

In the summer of 1942, he returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong. From then on, Dumen gave thanks.

In October 1945, he returned to the stage and performed Kunqu Opera "broken bridge" and "a dream in the garden" with Yu Zhenfei in Shanghai Meiqi Grand Theater.

From June to November in 1948, the film was shot in Shanghai Lianhua No.3 Factory

Chinese PinYin : Mei Lan Fang