My father Du likes Peking Opera, and the two wives he later married-my mother and Meng Xiaodong-are both Peking Opera actors. My grandmother's names are Xiao, Xiao, En Xiaofeng and so on. She is one of the most accomplished actresses in the first generation of Peking Opera in China. Li Guifen is Lisa Lu's mother. I call her aunt. We have a good relationship with Yan Lu's family. She often stayed in our house when she was in Shanghai. My mother's name is Yao Yulan, and she was born an old Dan. After she married her father, she still sang operas, but most of them were charity performances or church gatherings.

My father has a good relationship with the Beijing Opera circle. No matter how famous Peking Opera actors came to Shanghai, they would go to my father's place. He often invites guests to dinner and sings a few words when he is happy.

My father and Mei Lanfang have known each other for a long time. Boss Mei visits my father every time he comes to Shanghai. The relationship between Mei Lanfang and my father, and the relationship between my father and Meng Xiaodong should be separated. My father married Meng Xiaodong after Mei and Meng separated.

Because they are all Peking Opera actors, Meng Xiaodong is very close to my mother and grandmother. Meng Xiaodong met his father after leaving Mei Lanfang for a period of time, and his formal contact was in the 1940s. Mom doesn't mind treating Meng Xiaodong as one of her own. Their relationship is ups and downs, and sometimes they quarrel. As soon as she got angry, she went back to Beijing and got well again a few months later. I still have the letter that Meng Xiaodong sent to my mother during that time. These letters are all about life. My mother sometimes sends her money. In Beijing, she has a group of friends who often come to Shanghai, such as the Wu family and Zhujiajian Island family, who know each other very well.

I guess my father has had a crush on Meng Xiaodong for a long time. On the one hand, she sings very well and can be called an artist from now on; On the other hand, Meng Xiaodong is good at calculating and pleasing his father. He often tells jokes in front of my father to amuse him. Besides Mandarin, Meng Xiaodong speaks Shanghainese very well, so the communication between her father and her may be smoother. Unlike my mother, although she has been married to her father for so many years, she can hardly speak Shanghainese. Later, my wife often asked my mother how to communicate with my father. My mother replied, "He can understand me, but I can't understand him."

The breakup between Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong is not so simple, and may involve many complicated issues. My mother sometimes tells us something about their separation. My mother knows that Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang must have conditions to leave, and the conditions may be harsh. My mother doesn't like it, because they are all from opera and have some sympathy for Meng Xiaodong. But what this condition is, only Mei Lanfang, Fu Zhifang and Meng Xiaodong know. Mei Baojiu doesn't know, and neither does Xu Jichuan-when I went to 1983 to find Lao Xu, I mentioned it, but he didn't know. I think Fu Zhifang may have conditions to restrict Meng Xiaodong from performing on stage as a condition for their separation, but this is only speculation and cannot be confirmed. So I later heard that Zhang Ziyi planned to shoot a biography of Meng Xiaodong, but the Mei family refused because it might involve more subtle relations. I don't think the movie Mei Lanfang will deal with this relationship too much.

The relationship between my father and Mei Lanfang was not influenced by Meng Xiaodong. 1947, father's 60th birthday, China Grand Theatre organized a church party on 10. Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong both went to Shanghai to perform, but they didn't share the same stage-10 day, Mei Lanfang for 8 days and Meng Xiaodong for 2 days, thus avoiding the embarrassment of meeting. Meng Xiaodong never mentioned Mei Lanfang. After liberation, my father had no contact with Mei Lanfang.

1950, wedding photo of Meng Xiaodong and Du (taken in Hong Kong).

I think Meng Xiaodong still has feelings for my father, otherwise she wouldn't come to Hong Kong with her father. I married her a year before my father died in order to give her a birthright. Otherwise, how can I divide the property in my will? Not many people attended the wedding that day except our family. We had a meal together and took some photos. The wedding photos are still kept in Shanghai History Museum, including my photo with Ma, Wan and Meng Xiaodong's disciple Qian Peirong. On the wedding day, Xiaodong Meng was very happy, and his father, who had been ill for a long time, seldom had spirit. In spite of his illness, he stayed with his guests. It doesn't matter who perfected the marriage. There is affection between them. My father has always attached great importance to her artistic achievements, and Meng Xiaodong also admires him. The marriage between her and her father is not a debt of gratitude or a helpless choice. Plus my mother is in the middle, so it's easier to walk together. Books published now, such as Biography of Meng Xiaodong, the Winter Emperor of Liyuan, tell how my father and Meng Xiaodong got together, but what they said is not reliable.

After Meng Xiaodong married her father, we called her "Mommy" and mother "Niangniang". Meng Xiaodong usually calls me my mother's sister, because before she became husband and wife with her father, Meng Xiaodong and her mother were both Peking Opera actors and had a good relationship.

Meng Xiaodong was beautiful when he was young. She used to smoke heavily, but that didn't affect her singing skills. Meng Xiaodong's personality is aloof and arrogant. In her later years in Hong Kong and Taiwan, she never sang, even in oratorios. The last oratorio was sung to Chang in Hong Kong, because I often like to listen to her plays, which is a great honor. Although I didn't sing much later, I still have great prestige. My wife once asked Meng Xiaodong, "Are you going to sing?" Meng Xiaodong replied: "Where is Hu Qin?" Yes, how can you sing without the huqin? The last person who played the Hu Qin for her was Wang Ruizhi, who also died.

1952, my mother and I went to Taiwan Province province first, and Meng Xiaodong stayed in Hong Kong alone until 1967, when we also arrived in Taiwan Province province. After Meng Xiaodong arrived in Taiwan Province Province, his life was dull. She rented a house and lived alone. She adopted a child when she was in Peiping early. It is a rumor that she is pregnant with Mei Lanfang's child. Meng Xiaodong lived well in his later years. She has no financial resources and lives on the money my father left her and the money she used to earn. She doesn't have much demand for money either. She just wants her friends to come to her every day, just like my wife and my second sister go to play cards with her. Meng Xiaodong is very close to us and treats us as his own children. We treat her well, too. There are people in her house every day, and my mother goes there every day.

A few years ago, the book Biography of Meng Xiaodong said that she had ten apprentices, but there was no such thing at all. Several people often go to Meng Xiaodong's house to chat and tell stories. Her personality is like this: she must not be a sinner, so you ask her, "How does Miss Meng sing?" Her answer is always "yes". Meng Xiaodong suddenly fell ill and died. In fact, none of them worshipped Meng Xiaodong, so after Meng Xiaodong's death, they discussed: Let's kowtow in the mourning hall. Many people came to the mourning hall that day to kowtow to Meng Xiaodong. Are all disciples? So the so-called "Top Ten Disciples" is actually a big joke.

Historical source "out of the dust of history"

Oral speaker: Du Weishan.

Author: Jing Li