China News Service, Beijing, October 22 (Yuan Xiuyue) On October 22, 1894, Mei Lanfang was born in the Mei's old house in Beijing's Litieguai Xiejie.

As a master of Peking opera, he not only set a peak in Peking opera performances, but also vigorously inherited and innovated the art of opera.

　　126 years later, the three characters Mei Lanfang are still an irreplaceable cultural mark in many people's hearts.

For today's young people, "Mei Lan Fang Hot" also has new enlightenment.

People greeted Mr. Mei Lanfang

"I am a clumsy artist"

　　In 1911, the 17-year-old Mei Lanfang premiered "Jade Hall Spring" and quickly showed his name in Beijing.

His voice was clear and clear, like an ying sing, which made the audience utterly intoxicated.

Two years later, the Mei Opera Troupe went to Shanghai to perform, and the advertisement pages of Shanghai newspapers only published the three characters "Mei Lanfang" for many consecutive days, which drew the appetite of Shanghainese.

The performances were also full. The "Declaration" called Mei Lanfang "the first Tsing Yi Hua Dan in the north and south" and praised him as "the appearance is like a child, and the sound is like a crane".

　　Many people may think that Mei Lanfang was born for the stage because of his talent.

In fact, his path of learning opera was not smooth.

"The Biography of Mei Lanfang" wrote that his aunt once said that he was "unspeakable, unsurprising, with drooping eyelids, and would not speak when he saw people."

When he first started learning opera, his husband taught him four old accents, but he still couldn't sing after several hours of learning.

Finally, the husband said to him angrily: "Master Zu did not give you this bowl of rice."

　　For those who are just learning art, this is a heavy sentence.

However, Mei Lanfang was not discouraged by her husband's words, but was aroused to enterprising.

He worked extremely hard in his studies. He would insist on practicing qigong in the cold winter, stepping on stilts, kicking, hitting handles, running round the field... and fell over and over again, and got up over and over again.

After formally apprenticeship at the age of 8, his husband was also strict with him. He got up before dawn and practiced his throat repeatedly until the teacher was satisfied.

In class, others sang twenty times, he sang thirty times.

Mei Lanfang took a group photo with everyone

　　There is also a well-known story of raising pigeons and practicing eye contact. Mei Lanfang's eyes are a little short-sighted, her eyelids are drooping, her eyeballs are not moving flexibly, and sometimes she shed tears in the wind.

Hearing that raising pigeons can improve eyesight, he started raising pigeons with the idea of ​​trying.

Unexpectedly, with the observation of the pigeon year after year, he actually corrected the eye problem.

　　"I'm a clumsy art learner. I don't have enough genius. I rely on hard work." Mei Lanfang once said in the memoir "Forty Years of Stage Life". Knowing tricks, will not cut corners.

　　But it is this kind of hard work that allowed Mei Lanfang to lay a solid basic skills, and his courteous, eager, and refined attitude of learning has also run through his acting career.

Mei Lanfang old photos

Bringing Peking Opera to Hollywood

　　Mei Lanfang is not only a performer on the stage, he also has his own thinking and innovation for Peking Opera.

When he appeared on stage, he was not blindly conservative.

At that time, an audience member named Qi Rushan often wrote to him and made some suggestions, sometimes as long as more than 3,000 words. Mei Lanfang was never impatient, but read carefully and adopted them one by one.

Not only gradually eliminated some of the old rules and bad habits of Tsing Yi performances on the traditional stage, and opened up a brand new world, but also gained a close friend and met many literati and famous people.

　　The interactions with these painters, poets, and dramatists also gave Mei Lanfang a lot of inspiration. He once mentioned in "Forty Years of Stage Life": "In the past, those who taught opera only taught singing, reading and doing. I have never heard of explaining the meaning of words. I only learn how to sing as the teacher teaches me. It’s like a pig eating ginseng fruit. I don’t know what it tastes like. I see this is important The key is to understand the meaning of Quwen first..."

Data map: In December 1959, Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang took a group photo with young actors and teaching staff.

Photo courtesy of Wang Zhenguo

　　After that, Mei Lanfang also launched a series of innovations, including reforming old dramas, creating new fashion dramas and new costume dramas, and reforming performance costumes, makeup modeling, dance, and headwear.

　　Another major pioneering work of Mei Lanfang included the invitation of the Mei Lanfang Troupe to perform in Hollywood, USA in 1930, which caused a sensation.

Although the American audience could not understand Mei Lanfang's lyrics, the Chinese Peking Opera art still gave them a great shock, and the tickets for the performance were also robbed.

In a sense, Mei Lanfang was also the "first person" in China to enter Hollywood.

Mei Lanfang old photos

Not arrogant and arrogant

　　Mei Lanfang's personal character has always been praised. Mei Baojiu, the son of Mei Lanfang, recalled during his lifetime that although his father was usually very easy-going and courteous to everyone, he was not arrogant or arrogant, gentle but not weak.

　　"When he was a child, it was when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. They plundered many times and stimulated his national consciousness. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he played "Life and Death" and "Anti-Golden Soldiers" in Shanghai. Alien invasion. When Shanghai became an isolated island, his father took refuge in Hong Kong. After the fall of Hong Kong, he returned to Shanghai with a beard and determined not to perform for the Japanese."

One of the national quintessence Mei Lanfang's stage art gold coins "Tai Zhen Wai Chuan" issued in 2007

　　Mei Lanfang is not just an entertainer who lives on the stage and does not hear things outside the window.

In 1935, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River suffered a catastrophic flood. Mei Lanfang held a six-day disaster relief performance in Dahua Theater and other places. The performance received more than 30,000 silver dollars from tickets, and he donated all of it to the Flood Relief Committee.

　　The dramatist Ouyang Yuqian once commented that Mei Lanfang is "a real actor and a creator of beauty".

Indeed, whether in or out of the play, Mei Lanfang has managed to convince people.

A hundred years have passed in a hurry, and this is still the highest level an actor can pursue.

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