by
Chen Mei-Juin
All
of those 'Fifth Generation'
Chinese movies in which
the lives of opera actors
and other protagonists
become mirrors for the
countless changes and
unheavals China went through
in the 20th century find
an objective correlative
in Chen Mei-Juin's documentary
about the greatest ever
star of Peking Opera,
Mei Lanfang.
Mei
was a man almost exclusively
dedicated to female roles;
his work was admired by
figures as diverse as Chaplin,
Eisenstein, Brecht and Douglas
Fairbanks. Working with
the co-operation of Mei's
surviving relatives, Chen
is able to draw on the best
archival sources; her film
includes clips from China's
first ever colour feature,
the long-unseen Wedding
In The Dream (1947),
directed by Fei Mu. Revered
equally by KMT Nationalists
and Communists, Mei was
both a cypher for China's
political shifts and an
index of the ultra-aesthetic
current in Chinese culture.
His success also highlighted
the west's desire to 'exoticise'
China.
