"I felt that everything on the Shanghai stage was evolving at the time, and it had already started to move forward in a new direction," Mei wrote in his memoir, Forty Years of Stage Life. "My short stay in Shanghai, which lasted only 50 days, had a great impact on the later stages of my life."

He gradually developed a highly expressive performance style known for its vigor and grace, and later set up the Mei School of opera techniques.

"In the following years, Mei devoted himself to understanding and learning Shanghai-style culture and infused it into the Mei School," says Zhou Qunhua, president of the Shanghai History Museum. "He also traveled from Shanghai to the United States and the former Soviet Union to show Chinese art to the world."

After Japan began its invasion of northeastern China on Sept 18, 1931, Mei relocated his family from Beijing to Shanghai. He and his colleagues worked on several new performances, including Resisting Jin Troops and Happiness Neither in Life Nor in Death, to rally the nation to fight the intruders.

When a full-scale invasion began in July 1937, Mei, who specialized in playing female roles on the stage, grew a beard and left the stage because he refused to perform for the Japanese army.

After an absence of eight years — a period that is the focus of one of the sections of the exhibition — he returned to the stage in late 1945 following Japan's unconditional surrender on Aug 15 that year. His comeback performance at the Majestic Theatre, one of the oldest in Shanghai, was a sensation.

"After the victory against the Japanese, the audience wanted to see me perform because they hadn't seen me for eight years. I was away from them for a long time, and I wanted to meet them on stage," he wrote in his memoir.

On Oct 9, 1956, the then 62-year-old Peking Opera maestro staged his last performance in Shanghai, concluding an illustrious career in the city that spanned over 40 years.

If you go

The Plum Blossoms in the East: Mei Lanfang in Shanghai

East Wing, Shanghai History Museum, 325 Nanjing West Road, Shanghai.

It runs until Feb 25.

xuxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn