ABSTRACT
From the early 1920s to his death, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) was a dominant figure in Peking opera. Specialized in female roles, he asserted great influence over Chinese opera and Chinese popular culture during this time. Images of his theatrical personae appeared on a wide variety of domestically circulated objects, from matchboxes and magazine covers to postage stamps. His tours in the United States and the former Soviet Union made his success international. Even in death, he accrued unprecedented honour as an actor. Premier Zhou Enlai personally instructed that Mei’s body be buried in the grand, unused coffin originally constructed for the 1924 state funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, when Peking opera returned to public attention in China as a part of national culture, the maestro’s posthumous career has rebounded. Today, celebrations are staged extensively; his residence in Beijing has been turned into a national museum; and publication on his life and work has become a mid-size cultural industry. Forever Enthralled (2008), a big-budget biopic directed by Chen Kaige – famous for Farewell My Concubine (1993) – and featuring the Hong Kong megastar Leon Lai (Li Ming, b. 1966), has rekindled public fascination with the star.
