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        In the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Pu, who retired from his official position of Assistant Prime Minister, had two daughters: the elder daughter Xue-Yen was ugly and funny, while the younger daughter Xue-Er was beautiful and gentle. But as Xue-Er’s mother was Cheng’s concubine, Cheng’s wife did not like her. One day, when Cheng Pu went on an excursion with Zhu Huan-Ran, a member of the imperial clan, he happened to meet Mu Ju-Yi, the son of his old friend. Mu Ju-Yi was a handsome and talented young man, and so Cheng Pu intended to marry Xue-Er to him. He asked Mu to come over to his house on his birthday, and told Xue-Er to hide behind the screen to take a look at the young man so that the two could be married. However, his wife wanted to marry Xue-Yan off first as she favored her own daughter.

        On the day of the birthday banquet, both Zhu Huan-Ran and Mu Ju-Yi came to wish Cheng a happy birthday.  Cheng Pu asked Mu Ju-Yi to stay overnight and promised to give him his daughter Xue-Er’s hand on the second day of the fourth month. However, as Xue-Yan fell for the handsome young man, she visited Mu in the study that night, pretending to be her younger sister Xue-Er. Mu was shocked by her ugliness and promptly made his escape. He met Zhu Huan-Ran halfway and accepted some money given by Zhu for his trip. Zhu Huan-Ran was smitten by Xue-Er’s beauty. When he found out Mu Ju-Yi had escaped and Cheng Pu had left home having been enlisted by the imperial court to suppress a rebellion, Zhu took the chance to take on the identity of Mu to marry Xue-Er. However, on the wedding day, Cheng’s mother, who favored Xue-Yan, married Xue-Yan to him. It turned out that the two who took on someone else’s identity were married and became a couple.
        With the local bandits rising in revolt, Cheng’s wife went to the capital to seek refuge at Zhu Huan-Ran’s place. Xue-Er did not want to go with Xue-Yan’s mother since she despised Zhu for his behavior. Later, after Cheng Pu had put down the rebellion, he took Xue-Er to his camp where Mu Ju-Yi was serving as well. Cheng Pu once again proposed marriage, and Hung Gong and Commander Zhou compelled Mu Ju-Yi to agree with the marriage. On the wedding night, Mu Ju-Yi told them about the night when he had been shocked by the ugly woman. After the intercession of Hong Gong and Commander Zhou, he realized what had happened was a mistake, and the two became a perfect match. Later, Zhu Huan-Ran was robbed, and he brought Cheng’s wife and Xue-Yan to seek refuge in his father-in-law’s camp. After so many twists and turns, the family was finally reunited.  
 

        Life is full of chances and coincidences. Sometimes the sudden flash of an idea serves to promote the development of an incident, and we often shout out in surprise: “No! What a coincidence!” Sometimes with the complex entanglement of relationships between relatives, neighbors, classmates, or friends, we sigh, “The world is such a small place!” Fate is unpredictable and dramatic. Interestingly, when we view a performance on stage, sometimes we demand a “reasonable” development so that when an opera is full of coincidences like The Phoenix Returning to Its Nest, we find the plot hardly convincing. One character takes up a false identity to marry a woman, and another takes up a false identity to marry a man. In the midst of the turmoil and the ravages of war, the leading female character meets the leading male character again. Such coincidences seem incredible. But when Qi Ru-Shan wrote the opera The Phoenix Returning to Its Nest based on the legend of The Cycle, he wanted to present not just the complex development of the plot that connected all the characters together, but the charm of the superstar Mei Lan-Fang. Though the leading female character (dan) appears in just five or six scenes in this opera, the opera became one of the all-time favorites. We can imagine how crazy Mei Lan-Fang’s fans were about his performance. The plot of the opera was secondary to the charm of the leading female role.

        Ever since the opera was first performed on stage in “Zhung-he Yuan” in 1928, The Phoenix Returning to Its Nest has been an important part of the repertoire of the Mei School. Lines such as “I followed the strict order of my father” and “I should have followed Mother to the capital to seek refuge” as well as “Mother should not be partial” are well remembered by fans. In addition, when Cheng Xue-Er hides behind the screen, she peeks at Mu Ju-Yi three times, and when she finds that Zhu Huan-Ran marries Cheng Xue-Yan by mistake, she smiles three times. Both of these scenes have become classic ones for the Mei School. Mei Lan-Fang presented the transition of the leading character’s mind with brilliant skill. The scene of “three peeks” begins with a careless peek, and then a thought occurs about taking another peek, and finally she is afraid to be seen but cannot help but turn around to peek for one last time. The scene of “three smile”was even harder to grasp. It is said that “the difficult part for a dan is to smile, and the difficult part for a hualian (a role with a painted face) is to cry.” Performances that present actual situations in life are most challenging for actors. She smiles because of the ugliness of Zhu Huan-Ran and her elder sister, but she also thinks it fun for such a pair to be matched. All the transitions are presented by different characters through different movements and gestures. A small movement that seems to be unconsciously performed on stage is actually part of great acting designed carefully by a true master.