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A man with a woman's touch

It's hard to overstate the significance of Mei Lanfang's (梅蘭芳) place in the pantheon of Peking opera stars. As with Western drama, it was traditional for young men to play female roles and Mei was the undisputed master of playing a Miss. In his 50 years of imitating women on stage, he became a household name throughout much of China.

But his fame wasn't limited to his homeland. As the first artist to introduce Peking opera to an overseas audience, he gained acclaim from some of the giants of Western drama. His influence spread to nearly every aspect of the art and his style came to be known as the "Mei school" of Peking opera. Years after his death, the Beijing Opera Company took Mei's name for its own and his house was made into a museum. It is featured on tourist maps of Beijing.

Born to a family of Peking opera performers, Mei began studying the art form at eight and made his stage debut at the ripe age of 11.

But Mei's talent did not come naturally. Later in his life, he recalled his first opera teacher telling him that he would never accomplish much in the profession because of his lackluster eyes. To overcome this, Mei said, he would stare intently at candle flames in the dark to follow their movements and raised pigeons to watch them soar into the clouds, all so that his eyes would "brighten." The training worked and he became famous by his twentieth birthday.

He became so adept at playing chingyi roles (青衣), which idealize feminine beauty and grace, and the dan roles (旦) of female warriors and vivacious young women, that the importance of these roles was forever changed. One story retells a time when he pretended to assault his wife. He later apologized to her and explained that he needed to understand a woman' s reaction to fear because his director was unsatisfied with a part of his performance.

He revolutionized stage make-up and costumes, systemized and enriched characters' gestures, expressions and poses and wrote several plays which he choreographed himself.

He twice toured the Soviet Union and Japan and, in 1930, played for audiences in the US, including Constantin Stanislavsky, the father of "method acting," who praised Mei's performance.

At the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, he returned to Shanghai but kept a beard and moustache and refused to perform for the Japanese occupiers. He resumed his stage career in 1946 and continued playing female roles until his death in 1961.
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