In a sunlit room of USC’s Doheny Library, two young girls entered in thick makeup and lavish costumes of sky blue, creamy white, and crimson. Their every movement was measured and precise, from each small tilt of the head to each subtle lift of the chin. As the music swelled, the young performers shifted from statuesque stillness to a whirlwind of movement and high-pitched song.
The two were members of the LA Youth Peking Opera Troupe, performing at a September 13th ceremony to kick off an exhibition on Mei Lan-Fang, the 20th-century Peking Opera artist. The exhibition, Reunion: Mei Lan-Fang and the United States, was organized by USC Libraries and the Chinese National Academy of Arts (CNAA) to commemorate the 130th anniversary of Mei Lan-Fang’s birth and the 94th anniversary of his historic visit to the United States, where he was given an honorary doctorate by USC. Featuring photographs of the artist and replicas of artifacts from his life, the exhibition will be on display at The USC East Asian Library through December 20th.
The Dean’s Chair of the USC Libraries, Melissa Just, extended a warm welcome at the opening ceremony. “We’re able to step back in time and explore Mei’s remarkable life and embark together on a cross-cultural collaboration to better understand its meaning for us today,” she said.
It was thrilling to “step back in time,” not only in exploring Mei Lan-Fang’s artistry but also in reflecting on my own journey with Peking Opera. I was a ninth grader in my hometown of Shanghai, China, when I saw a poster of a woman, her face painted in vivid streaks of color. It was an advertisement promoting a global competition to develop original reports and projects related to Peking Opera, offering medals as prizes. Intrigued, I recruited a team to compete.
Our project examined why Peking Opera is losing popularity among Chinese youth. A 2019 survey of six opera radio programs across China revealed that 56% of listeners are 65 or older, while those under 35 account for less than 10%.
My team circulated a questionnaire and interviewed experts, identifying several reasons for Peking Opera’s dwindling popularity among youth: cultural pluralism, high barriers to appreciating Peking Opera, and its misalignment with youth aesthetics. In responding to our questionnaire, young people tended to refer to Peking Opera as “outdated” and “tedious,” as well as unapproachable. Still, many respondents said they would be willing to watch a “modified” version of Peking Opera, with changes in script, duration, format, and promotion.
My team designed and produced cultural products inspired by Peking Opera—such as earrings, phone holders, cases, brooches, and blind boxes—blending tradition with modern trends, which earned us the global silver prize. I remember telling my family members that my hard work had paid off. My grandmother was the most delighted. “I remember sneaking into the kitchen to listen to my mother hum those tunes while she cooked dinner for the whole family,” she told me.
Four years later, at the Mei Lan-Fang ceremony, I was struck by the crowd’s diversity in age, language, and ethnicity, all of us connected by a shared interest in Peking Opera. In the front rows, an elderly gentleman sat next to a young man. These were Mei Lan-Fang’s grandson and great-grandson, both of them dedicated to carrying on his legacy and expanding the global audience for Peking Opera, which was first performed in the late 18th century in Beijing.
In an email interview, Mei Lan-Fang’s grandson Weidong Mei told me that his grandfather was a true pioneer. “In the play Fenhewan,” said Weidong Mei, “he broke through the static posture of the Qingyi actors in the past and created a performance that depicted his inner world when he sang. He expressed the complex expressions and movements of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, which became a beautiful dance style.”
Mei Lan-Fang was meticulous in his preparations, said his grandson. “In every role, he first studied the whole play, the role of the character in the play, the inner world of the character, and how to express it in the performance so that the audience could understand and accept it,” he said.
Mei Lan-Fang’s innovations included performing female roles and blending traditional elements of Peking Opera with more modern, approachable storytelling techniques. He not only pushed Peking Opera to new heights in China, he also introduced the centuries-old art to Western audiences. During his 1930 visit to the United States, Mei Lan-Fang performed traditional Peking Opera in major cities such as Los Angeles and New York; gave lectures; and met with American celebrities like Charlie Chaplain, promoting cultural exchange between China and the West.
Professor Joshua Goldstein, who serves as the director of the East Asian Studies Center at USC, delivered a speech at the exhibition kickoff event, describing how Mei Lan-Fang’s visit to America came at a time when U.S. laws and institutions discriminated against Chinese people.
“Part of what Mei Lan-Fang was emphasizing and evoking in his trip was the need for respect for Chinese people and Chinese culture,” said Goldstein. “And he really achieved that on every level of artistically and scholarly context, and also in interpersonal diplomacy.”
Mei Lan-Fang and his performances deeply impacted American audiences, said Goldstein. “You see it in the way Americans wrote reviews of his music and how deeply touched and respectful they felt towards him and realized the gravity of cultural exchange,” Goldstein remarked.
Mei Lan-Fang’s visit to the U.S. proved to be a key moment in U.S-China relations, fostering deeper understanding and connection between the two countries. All these years later, on the USC campus, a Peking Opera performance provided a moment of connection for me too. Watching the young performers glide across the room, I found myself reconnecting with the younger me, the young girl captivated by the lost art of Peking Opera.
