[Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

A farewell ceremony for Peking Opera master Mei Baojiu was held at a ceremetary in Babaoshan in Beijing on May 3. Dignitaries from all walks of life gathered to pay their final respects to a legend in Peking Opera.

Peking Opera master Mei Baojiu passed away due to respiratory complications at age 82 on April 25 in Beijing. As the ninth son of famed opera star Mei Lanfang, and an outstanding inheritor of the Mei School, Mei Baojiu devoted his life to promoting and innovating the traditional art of Peking Opera.

Mei Baojiu was Mei Lanfang's only child who performed as a nan dan, and Hu Wenge is the only nan dan apprentice of Mei Baojiu. It is a great pity that there are no more Mei family inheritors of the technique after him.