Common goal

Although there are not many nan dan performers, some have managed to achieve success, and attract an increasing number of followers.

In 2010, four Chinese nan dan artists, often called today's "Four Young Dan": Yin, Mu, Yang Lei and Hu Wenge, performed in a show together at Beijing's Chang'an Grand Theater, which sold out quickly.

Each of them played a classic female role. For example, Hu, the only nan dan apprentice of the late Peking Opera master Mei Baojiu, son of Mei Lanfang, played the legendary Tang Dynasty (618-907) concubine Yang Yuhuan in the classic Peking Opera piece, The Drunken Concubine.

Yang Lei, another nan dan performer with China National Peking Opera Company, whose style is of the Cheng School, played the role of Meifei, a concubine of Tang Dynasty emperor Li Longji in another excerpt.

Mu says that this year marks the 10th anniversary of that show in 2010. The four artists had planned to perform another show together, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they had to postpone it.

"For the audience, who know about Peking Opera, they are familiar with the repertoires we perform. They come to the theater to see what we can do onstage and how we illustrate the roles," says Mu. "That's why Peking Opera is actor-focused."

"A performance by a man playing a woman is not about satisfying the curiosity of the audience," Mu points out. "It's about giving a wonderful performance and displaying the beauty of Peking Opera. It's wrong if the audience is just paying attention to my gender onstage."

In Mu's real life, he has a hectic schedule, teaching students, writing academic theses, performing both at home and abroad, as well as giving Peking Opera workshops to the general public, from primary school students to retirees.