Author | Smell ink zhixiang (hole net store: smell ink zhixiang)
Source | Confucius old book network App dynamics
Art is a strange thing, some people and things, can be described as "unprecedented", such as Li Bai's poems, Sima Qian's literature, Wang Xizhi's "Fast Snow When Qing" authenticity, and Mei Lanfang's plays.
The "Mei Lanfang performance system" was regarded by the musician Mognechin as a "symbolist system" and likened by the film master Eisenstein to "Greek art in its heyday". This art has no "mechanical mathematical component" at all, but has "outstanding vitality and organicity". Mei Lanfang is a genius with a fairy spirit, and her performance seems "featureless" at first glance, but it has become a model for Chinese stage art.
In the early 1950s, the famous scholar Huang Bao asked Mei Lanfang to write an autobiographical memoir. Mei Lanfang took advantage of the gap in the performance, talked with Xu Jichuan for about two hours a day, after Xu shorthand, Xu Yuan verified, polished, modified, and accompanied by illustrations and photos, after further consultation, research, deliberation, verification, and revision, the three published the first and second episodes in 1952 and 1954, the book titled "Forty Years of Mei Lanfang's Stage Life", which became a popular bestseller. The writing of the third episode began in 1958 and was not published until March 1981.
The whole book of "Mei Lanfang's Memoirs" is divided into three episodes, in the form of conversations, telling the old affairs of the Mei family, the learning and art process, the performance on stage, and the creation. The first two episodes focus on Mei Lanfang's early years of learning art, emerging, and the process of artistic creation practice from 1913 to 1917, and have a more detailed record of his attempts to create fashion dramas such as "Evil Sea Waves", "Deng Xiagu", and "A Wisp of Hemp"; the third episode records his performance of "Qishuanghui" from 1917 to 1923, the compilation and performance of plays such as "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers", "Virgin Beheading Snake", "Overlord Farewell", and artistic activities during the period of cooperation with Yu Shuyan, the period of cooperation with Yang Xiaolou, and the period of Chenghua Society.
In the book, Mei Lanfang recalls his growth and development with Peking Opera, and also records his experience and reform and innovation of Peking Opera after his performance. The book also discusses Mei Lanfang's creation of singing voices and performances, the increase of accompaniment instruments and the reform of stage installations, as well as the experience of observing the performances of famous actors of previous generations or peers.
Mei Lanfang is an outstanding Peking Opera master of a generation in China, transforming into a beautiful woman in the form of a boy, and interpreting the life of countless gorgeous women who are either poignant, or exuberant, or can be laughed at. His mellow and bright singing voice, gorgeous dance and perfect performance constitute a beautiful landscape in the history of Chinese Peking Opera. However, the gorgeous stage scenery also hides the sadness of his early life and the unrelenting diligence after his fame. In this memoir, Mei Lanfang tells in a calm and calm tone about her stage career and how the predecessors of Pear Garden, who lived in such a difficult world, with a pious attitude and devoting their life's energy, developed Peking Opera to the peak.
"Mei Lanfang's Memoirs" tells the history of a person, when fate gave him thorns, he did not give up; when fate gave him roses, he did not indulge. It is both a biography of a celebrity and a history of Peking Opera in the Republic of China.