![]() media), many of his fans persisted in seeing culture a bit more competitively: Hence, it is not surprising that despite Mei’s mollifying rhetoric of culture as a transcendent realm of peaceful understanding (he was dubbed a “cultural ambassador” in both the Chinese and the U.S. They show only the Chinese people’s ugly side, never our virtue.” 4 Those who sponsored and cheered Mei’s tour aimed to refute these images-to wrest control over the representation of China abroad. In China, urban Chinese were quite familiar with the West’s racist representations, and many were irate at the humiliating one-way stream of foul images: “They pick out the extraordinary vices of particular individuals and wrongly present them as the common characteristics of Chinese people. Some Americans were more inured, others more sensitive to the violence of these representations. The predominant images of Chinese people in American newspapers were of starving, ignorant masses-individually, “a hideous figure with a queue hanging on the back” 3 -ruled by brutal military regimes that even stooped to sabotaging Christian attempts at famine relief Chinese Americans were segregated and stereotyped, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was so firmly established that it was hardly subject to debate. relations at the time were far from harmonious. 1Īttaching such earnest purpose to a Peking opera tour stamps it as a utopian mission, and, since Mei’s above graduation speech was extolled as “a model of public utterance” throughout the press, his listeners must have seen his point. ![]() and you have chosen me for this distinction, which is intended as an expression of your friendship for my people. You condescend to view our imperfect portrayals of China’s ancient drama. The people of my country, in common with yours, desire peace among nations. To achieve this goal everyone must concretely study both art and science to understand each other’s problems. If we want to protect real world peace, humanity must mutually understand, mutually tolerate and sympathize, mutually assist and not battle. Real peace cannot come from reliance on military force. When delivering humble speeches, whether at swank press parties or at stately graduation ceremonies (Mei received two honorary doctorates: one from Pomona College, the other from the University of Southern California), Mei invariably spoke of peace: The New York Times and the Shanghai News proclaimed it a historic validation of Chinese theater and trans-Pacific understanding. In both China and the United States, his tour was a trumpeted media spectacle, hailed as a triumph of cultural exchange. ![]() On his six-month tour across the United States in 1930, Mei Lanfang (1894–1961), Peking opera’s premier exponent of female roles, took the hearts of American theater lovers by storm. article in the Kansas City Independent, quoted in English and translated in Beiyang huabao, 19 April 1930
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