Mei Lanfang’s American tour (1929-39)
Abstract
On 29th December 1929 a troupe of about 20 actors, musicians and artistic consultants of Peking Opera, headed by Mei Lanfang, the most famous actor in China, who enjoyed international repute, set out from Shanghai for a very successful tour in the US. The article examines the importance of the contribution of the Chinese organizers, in particular that of Qi Rushan, a Chinese theatre historian who was also Mei Lanfang’s librettist. These people are to be seen as ‘cultural mediators’ who on the one hand, had to present the artists of Peking Opera as the exponents of an ancient Chinese civilization, and on the other hand had to reconcile this intent with the requests and desires of a foreign public unused to this form of art.