Tribute to Peking Opera master's genius

A costume worn by Mei, when he performed in the Peking Opera piece, Taizhen Waizhuan (The Anecdotes of Taizhen), in 1925.CHINA DAILY

Peking Opera was inscribed in 2010 on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

At the opening ceremony on July 23, Peking Opera artists who inherited the performing style founded by Mei, including Hu Wenge, Guo Xiao, and Wei Hai-min from Taiwan, staged some of Mei's most well-known Peking Opera pieces.

According to one of the exhibition's curators Zheng Guangxu, director of the Library of Chinese National Academy of Arts, which is one of the co-organizers of the exhibition, they spent over a year working on the exhibition, selecting more than 200 exhibits related to Mei, including nearly 120 valuable items on display to the public for the first time.

Featuring six sections, the exhibition opens with the early life of Mei, who was born in Beijing and was introduced to the world of Peking Opera at a tender age thanks to his family — his father Mei Zhufen and grandfather Mei Qiaoling were both famous Peking Opera artists. His uncle Mei Yutian was a celebrated player of the huqin, a traditional Chinese stringed musical instrument mostly used to accompany Peking Opera performances.

The first piece in the exhibition is a painting about 3.18 meters long and 0.82 meters wide, a replica based on the art piece by Qing Dynasty artist Shen Rongpu titled Tongguang Shisan Jue (Thirteen Masters of the Tongzhi and Guangxu Reigns), featuring 13 Peking Opera masters of the dynasty, including Mei Qiaoling.