Greatest Tan

"The Grand Abbot of Ching-Chung Monastery," indeed the "Foremost of the Pear Orchard," disembarked from an ocean steamship in Seattle last week. He was a small, girlish-looking Chinese gentleman. In his curiously carven and vivid luggage were layers of sumptuous fabrics, great coils and shining lumps of jewelry. Twenty Chinamen accompanied "The Grand Abbot of Ching-Chung Monastery," certain of them bearing strangely shaped cases containing musical instruments.

The "Foremost of the Pear Orchard" was Mei Lan-fang of Peiping. Despite his titles, he was neither a monk nor a fruit-grower. Numerous Chinamen and Seattle dignitaries who met him at the boat welcomed him as China's greatest actor, come to introduce his art to the U. S. Mei Lan-fang and his company begin a U. S. tour in Manhattan Feb. 17.

As his steamship crossed the Pacific, Mei Lan-fang's tender, childlike visage belied the mature perplexities that crowded his small head. The difficulties in presenting Chinese drama to an Occidental public are considerable. For Chinese drama is not Classic or Romantic, realistic or idealistic, sentimental or satiric--it does not fit in any of the categories which Occidental critics have devised to describe Occidental literature. Chinese drama is a formalized, ancient ritual, a subtle play of gesture, expression and intonation in which each turn of the eyeball, each crook of the finger, has definite significance. A Chinese actor succeeds to the extent that he masters this vast, intricate bodily symbolism, the medium of an art far older than Shakespeare's. Mei Lan-fang knew, as he thought it over, that U. S. audiences would only comprehend the simplest elements of his plays as described in an English synopsis, that beyond that he must depend for success on the chance that he could kindle in his discerners some intuitive appreciation of what to them would be new, wholly foreign beauties. Socially he was well sponsored, by the China Institute in America, more particularly by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Charles R. Crane, John Dewey, Otto Hermann Kahn. Esthetically he represented a tradition which countless Emperors had applauded. But he had his worries.

Mei Lan-fang is 32. At the age of seven he had mastered Chinese music, studying with his uncle Yu-ti'en, famed musician and virtuoso on the stringed hu-k'in. When he was twelve, Mei Lan-fang, grandson of a great actor of the '50s, made his own debut as a tan (female impersonator). The impersonation of women is perhaps the greatest branch of Chinese acting, for women are not permitted on the stage.* Mei Lan-fang plays women's roles entirely. He is president of Peiping's Actors' Association and his superiority in his calling is unquestioned.

Gentility and cultivation have made him a social favorite and an incessant host to visiting notables. His name appears on Chinese merchandise as suggestive of quality. He paints, gardens, studies biology, boxes in the Chinese fashion, likes to tinker with machinery. He has written some 15% of the 400 plays in his repertoire, and his collection of books on Chinese drama, art and music is noteworthy. Among those who have admired his acting are Fritz Kreisler, Somerset Maugham, the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden, Bertrand Russell. Tumultuously has he been received in Japan.

In 1923 he was summoned to appear before onetime Emperor Hsuan T'ung in the Yang Hsin Palace of the Forbidden City. There he was presented with delicate, imperial porcelains and dubbed "Grand Abbot of Ching-Chung Monastery," traditional title bestowed by the Manchu Emperors on their favorite actors. He was also allowed to retain the title "Foremost of the Pear Orchard" which is derived from the fact that during the T'ang Dynasty court actors called themselves "Disciples of the Pear Orchard" because they performed in a palace bordered with pear trees. Few would deny any title, however lofty, to a man who, in addition to being supreme in his art, can command a salary big enough to make even the most high-priced cinema blonde envious. Mei Lan-fang's annual earnings are reputedly equivalent to $750,000.

*Emperor Pro Chi'en Lung forbade women to act in China 150 years ago, after his son had eloped with an actress.

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