Mei Lan-Fang: The Life and Times of a Peking Actor

164 Pages·1971·8.84 MB·English

by  A. C. Scott / Mei Lan - Fang

MEI LAN-FANG
The Life and Times of a Peking Actor
A. C. SCOTT
with illustrations by the author
HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS
Mei Lan-fang came from a famous actor family
—the profession is often hereditary in China—and
this story of his life is drawn mainly from his
own reminiscences and from conversations with
the author. He was a national figure whose name
was a household word for more than forty years;
even in Europe, Japan, Russia and America he was
widely known and admired. He was instrumental
in opening the eyes of men like Stanislavsky,
Eisenstein and Brecht to new dimensions of theat
rical expression.
No other Chinese actor attained and retained
the unique position held by Mei Lan-fang. In
foreign eyes it is unique in another sense for Mei
made his reputation playing the women's roles of
the Chinese classical repertoire, somewhat in the
tradition of the Elizabethan theatre in the West.
This biographical sketch remains the solitary
account in English of China's most famous actor.
HK$i5.oo
(in Hong Kong only)
Oxford University Press and its
Branches are the sole distributors
outside Hong Kong
MEI &AN-FANG
BY A. C. SCOTT
THE KABUKI THEATRE OF JAPAN
Allen and Unwm, London 1955
THE CLASSICAL THEATRE OF CHINA
Allen and Unwm, London 1957
TRADITIONAL CHINESE PLAYS
University of Wisconsin Press
Volume I, 1967, Volume II, 1969

Mei Lan-fang in 1956
MEI LAN-FANG
The Life and Times of a Peking Actor
A. c. SCOTT
with tllustrattons by the author
HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS
© Copyright by the Hong Kong University Press
First printed in October ig$g, 1500 copies
Published in 1959 with the title Mei Lan-
fang. Leader of the Pear Garden. First
issued in this paperback form in 1971
Printed in Hong Kong.
Oxford University Press are the sole distributors outside Hong Kong
£>
LIBRA PRESS LTD.
56, Wong Chuk Hang Road, $Dt Hong Kong
PREFACE AND POSTSCRIPT
HpHE years which have elapsed since the first publication of this book
-^ and its reissue as a paperback have marked profound changes in
China. One result of the ensuing political turmoil has been the uncom
promising relegation of the traditional theatre in a way that few could
have foreseen when these pages were first written and Mei Lan-fang was
still alive. His death in 1961 foreshadowed the end of the old acting
traditions. During the half century that he was active on the stage Mei
became a household legend among his fellow-countrymen who respected
both his talents and his personality in an unprecedented way. His
reputation spread far beyond China and he was instrumental in opening
the eyes of men like Stanislavsky, Eisenstein and Brecht to new dimen
sions of theatrical expression. Today, ironically, the name of Mei is
barely remembered, if at all, by the new generations in China.
Originally I had wanted this book to be a complete and extensively
annotated translation of Mei's memoirs which were being published
piecemeal in China during the early fifties. It was to ask for his collabora
tion in this project that I had a meeting with him in Peking in 1956.
In the event it proved impossible to correspond with him afterwards
from Hong Kong where I was then living and Mei himself was powerless
to remedy the situation, willing though he was. It is sad that he never
completed his memoirs before he died. This book, based largely on such
materials as he had already published was an apology for what might
have been.
Were I to write such a book today it would be a very different work.
As it is this biographical sketch has remained a solitary account in
English of China's most famous actor. I hope it may, in spite of some
inadequacies, still prove informative for the ordinary reader for whom
it is intended.
A. C. SCOTT 1971