Mei Lanfang, Great Peking Opera Artist
2 min readIn the history of Peking Opera, there have arisen many celebrated performers, including certain legendary artists of great accomplishment. Mei Lanfang worthy exemplar.
Mei lanfang was an actor who played the role of young women(dan ). Together with Cheng Yanqiu(1904-1958), Shang Xiaoyun(1900-1976) and xun Huisheng(1900-1968), they were acclaimed the four famed Peking Opera female-role performers. Mei lanfang had a melodious voice, a beautiful stage appearance, with elegant dancing and movements onstage. He crafted a noble and natural image, reaching the zenith of female-role performance Mei lanfang made innovations to the art of peking Opera in different aspects He composed many new melodies, introduced facial expressions, movements and the technique of dancing to the accompaniment of singing, from Kunqu Opera to Peking Opera; he also created various dances, such as the silk dance, sword dance. sleeve dance. and duster dance. he was the first to use the erhuto support the jinghu(traditional stringed instruments), to accompany singing y the female role, thus musically enriching Peking Opera. He also made innovations to masks, hairstyles and costumes. His representative operas include the drunken concubine. King chu bids farewell to his Concubine The Universe, and Woman General Mu Guiying.
Mei lanfangs appearance, costumes dance, movements, and singing onstage are all extremely striking. The Drunken Concubine depicts a woman’s graceful appearance and conduct in an inebriated state.The Universe describes a woman named Zhao Yanrong pretending to have gone mad，who yet presents a beautiful image despite her insanity.Mei lanfangs performances fully demonstrated Chinese classical beauty with everlasting allure.He is worthy of the title of master artist of peking opera.
Mei lanfang headed several delegations on performance tours to the united States，Japan and european countries，winning an international reputation for Peking Opera.
