Mei Baojiu

Mei Baojiu (March 29, 1934) was a Chinese Peking Opera singer from Shanghai. The son of legendary Peking Opera singe Mei Lanfang, he started to learn the craft at 10 years old, and, by the time he turned 16, he was already touring the country with his father's troupe. During that time, Mei Baojiu got to share the stage with some of the most renowned Peking Opera singers in China, including Xiao Changhua, Jiang Miaoxiang, and Yu Zhenfei. After the death of his father in 1961, he became the leader of the Mei Lanfang Peking Opera troupe and staged traditional plays such as The Mulan, Return of the Phoenix, and Lian Jinfeng. In 1964, the company was forced to stop performing after suffering censorship from the Chinese government. Almost fourteen years later, Mei Baojiu reformed the troupe and rearranged the popular Peking Opera classics Yuzhoufeng the Sword, Luo Shen, Xi Shi, and The Story of Yang Guifei, among others. In the following years, Mei Baojiu devoted himself to teaching and helping introduce Peking Opera to the younger generations. He passed away at the age of 82 on April 25, 2016, due to complications of bronchospasm.

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