After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, our country can be said to be a soldier of the whole people, the anti-Japanese sentiment is unprecedentedly high, the soldiers on the front line are fighting bravely to kill the enemy, and the people from all walks of life in the rear are also resisting the invaders in their own way. One of the most widely circulated good stories is that Mei Lanfang, a master of Chinese Peking Opera performance, refused to perform for the Japanese Kou, grew a beard and Mingzhi, and died for 8 years.
Mei Lanfang was born in the Liyuan family, and this unique condition laid the foundation for him to become a generation of theater masters. He began to learn drama at the age of 8, studied Qingyi with Wu Lingxian at the age of 9, and performed at the "Guanghe Lou" Theater in Beijing at the age of 10.
Then in the decades of artistic career he became famous, the appearance fee of a performance in Shanghai was as high as ten gold bars, in addition to his fixed salary every month, 2100 yuan, in exchange for now, Mei Lanfang can definitely be called "top class", as long as it is his performance, it is often difficult to find a ticket, and even many dignitaries are scrambling to listen to his plays.
In the Republic of China, the dramatists are often called "lower nine streams", with a very low status, and are a tool for the people's leisure and entertainment after tea and dinner. The audience heard the climax offstage, and they were emotional, and they would throw some rewards on the stage.
Rich people are even more so, they will throw the rings they wear on their hands, or wrench their fingers. Sometimes I accidentally hit the door of the protagonist's head, smashing out a large bag, and the horns on the stage also have to respectfully thank you for the reward.
Mei Lanfang is different, he is a real artist, he likes to innovate and change. He will integrate the elements of Chinese ink painting into the opera, so that the audience can be refreshed, listening to his plays is as if he is enjoying one world famous painting after another, which can be described as an extremely enjoyable audio-visual feast.
His requirements for costume props and makeup are also extremely strict, pursuing dynamic beauty, and striving to make the audience who buy tickets worth the ticket price, which is worth the trip.
At that time, all the dignitaries from the top to the dignitaries and the common people were all intoxicated by Mei Lanfang's drama. Some of Mei Lanfang's fan friends would write him thousands of words of long letters, which he called "artists". Between 1912 and 1914, after Mei Lanfang performed nearly 100 times in Beijing, his title changed from "artist" to "sir".
The title "Sir" is now a very common code name in our opinion, and any male can be called "Sir", but in the early days of the Republic of China, the drama was called Mr., which is a very respectful title.
Unlike other talented artists, Mei Lanfang was evaluated by her master as "God does not appreciate food" from a young age, and even said that he had an average appearance and rigid eyes, and once advised him to change his career and find another way out. However, Mei Lanfang himself did not believe in evil, and he was just on the opera bar.
In order to exercise his agile eyes, he forced himself to look directly at the sun, and also raised a lot of carrier pigeons, releasing them every day and tracking their flight trajectory with their eyes. At the same time, he followed the drama teams everywhere to learn the art and ponder their singing voice.
In this day-to-day training, he overcame his fatal eye shortcomings, and also learned a lot of singing skills, and after completing the transformation, he once again came to the door to worship the master, this time he officially became a disciple of Wu Lingxian.
After having a teacher, he did not slacken off, but worked harder, smelling chickens dancing every day, practicing basic skills, hanging his throat, practicing breath, imitating women's postures, and memorizing lines. Soon, he became the master's most outstanding apprentice, and the master also changed his initial evaluation and looked at him with admiration.
At the age of 19, Mei Lanfang can already be alone, the first appearance of "Cai Lou Match" won a full house of color, in 1915 the amazing "Eunuch Sea Tide" sensational beijing, 1922 created a new play "Overlord Farewell" rave reviews, "Noble Concubine Drunk" is one of his masterpieces.
The famous poet Tagore came to watch Mei Lanfang's performance, and after listening to a song "Roselle", he immediately gave a poem to Mei Lanfang.
"My dear, you cover your face with a veil in a language I do not understand. Just like the distant vein, the ethereal clouds, the peaks shrouded in water mist. ”
In order to express her gratitude, Mei Lanfang wrote a folding fan as a gift.
"The sky is full of clouds and wet light clothes, as if it were next to the Milky Way Blue River." Where the spring love is, a smoke moon is not cold. ”
The two artists used their best words of praise, talked happily, and formed a deep friendship.
In 1937, the Japanese invaders wantonly ran amok on the land of China, burning, killing, and plundering without committing any evil deeds; the Chinese nation reached the most dangerous moment, and the all-people War of Resistance entered a climax. In order to support the anti-Japanese front, Mei Lanfang donated an aircraft to the army.
Not only that, in order to boost the morale of our army, Mei Lanfang and her friends jointly compiled and created the anti-japanese opera "Anti-Golden Soldier" and "Life and Death Hate", which was very strongly reacted after the performance, which stimulated the anti-Japanese fighting spirit of the audience.
After the Japanese entered the city, they tried every means to coerce and induce Mei Lanfang, in a vain attempt to let her perform on stage for the Japanese army, Mei Lanfang would not obey, and later they retreated to the second place, as long as Mei Lanfang said a paragraph on the radio to show his sincerity to the "Imperial Japanese Army", Mei Lanfang angrily refused.
After repeatedly hitting the wall, the Japanese removed the disguise of morality and sent soldiers to Mei Lanfang's home to arrest him on the stage, Mei Lanfang had no choice but to use a bitter meat plan, he asked the doctor to give him special medicine and inject him with typhoid injections, disguised as his serious illness before escaping the disaster.
In the following years, Mei Lanfang did not appear on stage again, he began to grow a beard, people say that artists have flowering periods, in the golden age of Mei Lanfang's life, he gave up the opera he pursued all his life for the sake of the righteousness in his heart. On the stage, he is a weak and beautiful woman, but offstage, he is a Chinese man with an iron bone. Such a high wind and bright festival, we deserve to be called "Sir".
After beating off the Japanese, the first thing Mei Lanfang did was to shave her beard and hang her throat to prepare for the future stage. In April 1949, in order to welcome the CPC Central Committee into Beiping, the Opera Circle of Beiping City specially prepared a welcome party, and Mei Lanfang was invited to appear in "Farewell to the Overlord". Before taking the stage, Chairman Mao deliberately went to the backstage to talk with Mei Lanfang, during which Chairman Mao quipped: "Mr. Mei, your fame is greater than mine."
The formal performance began, Mei Lanfang performed on the stage with great vigor, Chairman Mao watched drunk offstage, mei Lanfang, who was already 54 years old, once again dressed as Yu Ji, the style did not lose the year, a song was completed, thunderous applause sounded off the stage, Chairman Mao took the lead in standing up and applauding for him. After the opera was completely closed, Chairman Mao stepped forward to take a group photo with Mei Lanfang and other actors.
In 1953, Mei Lanfang took the initiative to join the third condolence group of Chinese people to the DPRK and sang several good plays for the soldiers of our volunteer army. In September 1954, Mei Lanfang was elected as the First National People's Representative of the People's Republic of China.
After frequent contacts with Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and other important leading figures, Mei Lanfang had the idea of joining the party, a party application, which he revised several times before and after, and finally he submitted a 500-word application condensed from a 10,000-word draft.
On July 1, 1959, introduced by Zhou Enlai, Mei Lanfang joined the Communist Party of China. After joining the party, he handed over all his personal savings to the party organization and received only 336 yuan in salary per month. On July 9, 1961, Mei Lanfang became the president of the China Academy of Performing Arts.
Mei Lanfang was humble and low-key all his life, distinguishing right from wrong in front of the great righteousness of his home and country, reaching the pinnacle of artistic attainment, and creating a "Mei Pai" with a unique style, he is undoubtedly an artist of the people and the backbone of the art world. On September 25, 2019, Mei Lanfang was named "the most beautiful strivers".