Mei Lanfang Memorial Museum
梅兰芳纪念馆
Mei Lanfang Memorial Museum, situated at Huguosi Street, Beijing, was founded in October 1986. It was the Former Residence of Mei Lanfang since 1949 to 1961, a serene typical Beijing courtyard which covers an area of 700 square meters. At the top of the main gate hangs an inscription sounds "Mei Lanfang Memorial Museum" which was written by Chairman Deng Xiaoping. A white marble statue of the great artist of the era can be found right in front of the gate. A veranda with red-lacquered pillars, decorated with colorful drawings on its eaves, joins the east and west wing rooms to the north main rooms. It is in this quiet and comfortable residence that Mei Lanfang lived and spent his last years until his death on August 8, 1961. 
Preparation for the museum's construction began in December 1983 and the museum was opened to the public in 1986. Covering an area of 700 square meters, the museum, a typical Siheyuan (compound with houses around a courtyard) of old Beijing, is the former residence of Mei Lanfang from 1951 to 1961.
The museum boasts a collection of 32,421 items in the categories of plays, books, photos, play lists, manuscripts, calligraphies and paintings, and material objects, etc. Most of these items have value of cultural relics. For instance, quite a lot of the plays are hand-written copies of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and most are complete ones or only extant ones. Stills of Mei Lanfang and some other distinguished artists, group photos of the Mei School artists and foreign renowned artists, and the play lists of various theaters and communal gatherings for celebration from the end of the Qing Dynasty to modern times are all very precious. What's more, there are calligraphies and paintings of artists of the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties as well as the modern times, such as Wu Changshuo, Chen Shizeng, Chen Baochen, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Chen Banding,  Zhang Daqian and Fu Xinshe, etc.
The museum has three display rooms and a video projection room. The first display room introduces the art activities of Mei Lanfang in his lifetime; the second one shows the scenarios of Mei Lanfang's 10 visits to, performances and researches in foreign countries; the third one is the display room of Mei Lanfang's former residence, and includes the living room, the study and the bedroom, where the furniture and objects formerly used by Mei are on display. In the video projection room, the stage art films screened before Mei Lanfang's death, his biography films and newsreels are projected in turn to visitors.
 Mei Lanfang was born in 1894 into a family of Peking Opera performers. He began his stage debut at 11. In his 50-year stage career, he maintained strong continuity while always working on new techniques. His most famous roles were those of female characters; skillful portrayal of women won him international acclaim, and his smooth, perfectly timed, poised style has come to be known in opera circles as the "Mei School."
Mr. Mei was the first artist to spread Peking Opera to foreign countries, participating in cultural exchanges with Japan, the United States and other regions.
After 1949 he once served as director of China Peking Opera Theater, director of the Chinese Opera Research Institute, and vice-chairman of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Besides his autobiography, Forty Years of Life on the Stage, Several of his articles and essays have been published in The Collected Works of Mei Lanfang. His well-known performing items have been published in A Selection of Peking Operas Performed by Mei Lanfang.
Address: No.9, Huguosi Street, Xicheng District;
Entry ticket: 10 yuan;
Opening hours: 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM;
Traffic: Bus No.s 13, 22, 38, 42, 47, 55, 107, 111, 118, 409, 701, 709, 726, 806, 810, 826, 823 and 850;
Tel: 86-10-66183598.
 Chinese Scenic Spot-Beijing's Siheyuan
 Beijing's historical residences
Beijing's Hutongs
Beijing Attractions
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