Renowned Peking Opera artist Mei Baojiu, the ninth son of artistic master Mei Lanfang, died on Monday at the age of 82. One Christian friend of Mei testified Mei's conversion to Christianity during his lifetime.
Born in 1934, Mei Baojiu was the descendant of Mei School and the leader of Mei Lanfang Peking Opera troupe in Beijing Peking Opera Theatre. Mei Baojiu shared fame with his father for multiple plays, including the household name Farewell My Concubine.
Compared to his great achievement in Peking opera, his faith experience was rarely known, however.
A Christian sister called "Global Swallow" who claims herself as a friend of Mei despite great difference in age, shared his convertion to Christianity on her microblog in September, 2010.As a full-time preacher in a Chinese church in Spain, she opened her microblog in 2010 with the intention to preach the gospel to her Chinese friend in China.
She shared that she preached to Mei a long time ago and led him to do a prayer to accept Jesus. "He says he receives comfort in his heart and finds release after finishing the prayer every time. Moreover, he replies with amen obediently after I pray for him." The article says.
Mr. Mei also told her that he studied in a church school in Shanghai, as a result, it was good to believe in Jesus in his eyes.
Besides, the article continues with a story that it was unexpected that the CD used for Mei's grand finale was mistaken by a sound technician when he appeared on the stage in a large show. Immediately the CCTV host explained the reason with the apologies to the audiences.
The preacher and her mother prayed to ask the Lord to help Mei off the stage when the staff was rushing to Mei's home to get the right CD.
Right after the prayer, the students of Mei went up onto the stage and performed, which turned better as well as breaking the embarrassing silence.
Afterwards, the artist said he calmed down later and asked his students to perform at once, which resulted in the crowning touch to the performance.She told him that those happened because God heard their prayer, meanwhile reminding him to cast the difficulty to God by prayer instead of anxiety and hurry when encountering crisis. He couldn't help being grateful to God for this.
The writer witnesses, "Teacher Mei is a very humble man, amiable to everyone...Besides humility, he is fully optimistic with warmth to life, especially more love for Peking opera."
Mei Baojiu (Chinese: 梅葆玖; pinyin: Méi Bǎojiǔ) (born 29 March 1934 in Shanghai, China, ancestral home Taizhou, Jiangsu), is a contemporary Peking opera artist, also a performer of the Dan role type in Peking Opera and Kunqu opera, the leader of Mei Lanfang Peking Opera troupe in Beijing Peking Opera Theatre. Mei's father Mei Lanfang was one of the most famous Peking opera performers. Mei Baojiu is the 9th and youngest child of Mei Lanfang. For this reason, he is called Baojiu, since in Chinese, jiu means nine. Mei Baojiu is the master of the second generation of Méi School descendant, he is also Mei Lanfang's only child who is now a performer of the Dan role of the Peking Opera.
