Caption: Mei Lanfang's group photo with the theater master Chaplin during her tour of the United States in 1930 is a recorded story in the history of cultural exchanges between the East and the West
When it comes to Peking Opera, Mei Lanfang is undoubtedly internationally recognized as China's greatest Danjiao actor, and also one of the greatest actors on the global theatrical stage in the 20th century.
■ Mei Lanfang's early performance of "Tai Zhen Wai Shi" stills
In order to preserve Mei Lanfang's artistic heritage, many of his performances have been made into films, in order to make it easier to pass on his art to generations of new actors. Mei Lanfang's life experience has also become a popular performance object for many TELEVISION, film and stage works.
As early as 1994, Shanghai staged a drama describing Mei Lanfang's life, "Mei Lanfang". In 2008, the play was re-arranged with the addition of Peking Opera art. In 2008, after three years of preparation and filming, the famous director Chen Kaige presented the highly anticipated biographical film "Mei Lanfang" to audiences around the world.
■ Poster of the movie "Mei Lanfang"
During this year's Spring Festival, the National Museum of China held an exhibition of "Mei Lan Fanghua - Mei Lanfang Art Life Exhibition", which showed the precious cultural relics related to Mei Lanfang's artistic life in a panoramic manner, allowing the audience to taste the life feelings and spiritual strength contained in meipai Peking Opera art works at close range.
■ Exhibition corner
There are also many books on the market about Mei Lanfang, from memoirs to biographies, from video records to comics, scholars, writers, and artists write about the personal charm and moral style of this artistic master in different genres and from all angles.
The 208th new book in the Overseas China Studies Series, Mei Lanfang and the International Stage in the 20th Century: The Positioning and Displacement of Chinese Drama, casts its sights on Mei Lanfang's main three overseas visits.
Through collecting and examining a large number of original materials, Tian Min, a scholar of Chinese descent in the United States, comprehensively analyzes Mei Lanfang's image replacement in cross-cultural contexts and the existence and positioning of Chinese drama on the international stage from the aspects of history, race, society, culture and aesthetics. This book is also the first monograph at home and abroad to study Mei Lanfang's influence on the international stage in the 20th century.
Mei Lanfang and the international stage of the 20th century
Source | School Siku (ID: Schoolsiku)
01
Visit to Japan in 1919: debut
The 1919 visit to Japan was Mei Lanfang's first appearance on the international stage. At that time, Mei Lanfang was 26 years old and was the newly elected "King of the Drama Industry".
Mei Lanfang's performance was watched by a variety of Japanese theater professionals of different social, ideological, artistic and theatrical tendencies, including Kabuki male actors, actresses, new-school drama actors, playwrights, supporters and participants of new plays, left-wing playwrights, theater historians and critics. Most of Japan's future generation of theater artists and practitioners have gained their first impressions of Chinese art through Mei Lanfang's performances.
■ Mei Lanfang meets With Japanese actors
The famous Japanese future director Chida Isiya was only 15 years old when he watched Mei Lanfang perform. He later recalled that he was impressed by Mei Lanfang's beautiful performance.
Kabuki actor Nakamura Akiemon recalls that he was only 18 years old when he saw Mei Lanfang performing "Tennō Scattered Flowers", and his heart was so excited that his heart jumped out. In Nakamura's eyes, Mei Lanfang is a real woman, his voice does not sound like a man, and his beautiful face and gentle posture make people completely unaware that he is a man.
More than 30 years later, Hanayagi Shotaro, Japan's most famous new-school actress who was a contemporary of Mei Lanfang, recalled that when he watched Mei Lanfang's "Tennō Scattered Flowers", he was completely attracted by Mei Lanfang's beautiful performance.
■ A scene from Mei Lanfang's performance of "Tennō Scattered Flowers" in Tokyo
■ Mei Lanfang (center) during her visit to Japan, during her visit to Japan, she took a group photo with the Japanese Kabuki master Five Generations Megura Song Right Guard Gate (left) and the sixth generation Megura Song Right Guard Gate
02
Visit to the United States in 1930: Packaging Strategies
The visit to the United States was Mei Lanfang's first performance in a Western country, facing an audience that was geographically distant and culturally different, which truly tested Mei Lanfang's international and "universal" appeal.
■ On February 17, 1930, for the first time in the history of Chinese Peking Opera, it was staged on Broadway, and the picture shows the poster of Mei Lanfang's public premiere at the 49th Street Grand Theater on Broadway in New York at that time
■ Mei Lanfang's name on the cover of "Drama Art Monthly"
The repertoire of Mei Lanfang's visit to the United States was carefully selected by Qi Rushan and other Chinese scholars who accompanied Mei Lanfang on her visit to the United States. They also prepared promotional materials in English for Mei Lanfang's trip to the United States.
In order to allow American audiences to better appreciate Chinese opera music, Mei Lanfang and Qi Rushan invited Liu Tianhua to record Mei Lanfang's 18 plays with Western-style staves. In order to find a model for Chinese theater, Qi Rushan surveyed about 20 Chinese theaters and finally chose the stage of the Forbidden City in Beijing and asked the painter to draw. Even the tables and chairs on the stage are Chinese-style.
■ When visiting the United States to perform "Fenhe Bay", Mei Lanfang played Liu Yingchun and Wang Shaoting played Xue Rengui
In addition, they produced more than 100 Chinese lanterns and flags hanging at the entrance of the theater and prepared Chinese costumes for the spectators. Before the New York premiere, they spent two days transforming the American Theater into a Chinese-style theater.
At the same time, they again carefully selected, modified, and choreographed theatrical and dance clips to better suit the tastes and preferences of American audiences. Qi Rushan also added an adapted Peking opera "Thorny Tiger" to Mei Lanfang's program list, because the facial expression of the heroine of this play is extremely varied, which is convenient for Americans to understand.
■ Mei Lanfang performed the scene of "Thorn Tiger" in the United States
03
Visit to the Soviet Union in 1935: Much attention
In order to promote Sino-Soviet cultural cooperation and improve diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union encouraged Mei Lanfang to perform in the Soviet Union. At the request of the Chinese Embassy in Moscow and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Executive Yuan of the Nationalist Government also passed a special resolution, and the President of the Executive Yuan issued a directive in February 1935 ordering the allocation of 50,000 yuan to support Mei Lanfang's visit to the Soviet Union. The directive mentioned the great significance of Mei Lanfang's visit to publicize Chinese culture, promote friendly international exchanges, and especially strengthen Sino-Soviet diplomatic relations.
With superb skills, Mei Lanfang presented the ancient Chinese theatrical art to the Soviet audience, so that the Soviet people had a profound understanding of Chinese culture, and then had a new admiration for the Chinese nation.
■ A poster of Mei Lanfang's performance in Moscow
Mei Lanfang himself and the members of the troupe also relished their success in the Soviet Union. After returning to China, at a welcome tea party organized by the mayor of Shanghai and other politicians, business tycoons and celebrities, Mei Lanfang gave a speech to summarize her trip to the Soviet Union.
He specifically mentioned the comments of Soviet dramatists such as Meyerhold and Eisenstein on his performances, emphasizing that the characteristic advantages of Chinese theater lie in the comprehensive art, the stylized methods that are most suitable for the "stage economy" and the training of actors. Mei Lanfang believes that if Chinese drama can undergo strict selection and new improvements, the preservation value is self-evident, and it will certainly have a higher status in the future.
■ Mei Lanfang took a group photo with Stanislavsky during her visit to the Soviet Union
■ Mei Lanfang was with Meyerhold and others during her visit to the Soviet Union
By overcoming and transcending differences in history, race, ideology, socio-politics, culture, and theater, Mei Lanfang eventually triumphed in both The East and the West, making him one of the greatest actors and artists on the international stage of the 20th century.
His positioning and presence on the international stage in the 20th century has been subject to constant debate, construction, deconstruction or reconstruction of various cultural, socio-political, ideological and dramatic forces from different historical contexts. Unfolding and examining this controversial history of positioning and displacement also provides a new perspective for interpreting the formation of international drama in the 20th century.
Mei Lanfang and the International Stage of the 20th Century: The Positioning and Replacement of Chinese Drama
Author: [Mi] Tamin
Translator: He Tian
Publisher: Jiangsu People's Publishing House