Mei Lan-fang's American Tour and China's Images in the U.S.

Abstract

Since the twentieth century, Peking Opera, a comprehensive stage art form, has been awarded the title of "China's national drama" and has become a well-known cultural symbol of China. Mei Lan-fang, a female impersonator, was reputed to be the most representative actor of Peking Opera. In the 1930s, Mei led a Peking Opera troupe and visited the United States. Mei's U.S. tour was not merely a spectacle orchestrated exclusively for curious Americans but was just as much designed to show the national images of China. Based on the American response to Mei Lan-fang's performance in the 1930s, this article attempts to examine what kinds of Chinese images are from the perspective of the American audiences, how they are constructed, and tries to find out the possible reasons.