Glory or Shame to the Chinese Nation: The Chinese Debate on Mei Lanfang’s 1935 Visit to the Soviet Union

Abstract

The end of 1932 saw the resumption of formal diplomatic relations between the Chinese nationalist government of the Kuomintang and the Soviet Union after a three-year break-off due to the Sino-Soviet War over the control of the Chinese Eastern Railway. In the middle of 1933, however, the Soviet Union initiated a unilateral negotiation with Japan over the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway to the Japanese puppet state of Manchoukuo in Manchuria.¹ Amidst these political and diplomatic manoeuvres and tensions, an important event of Sino-Soviet cultural exchange—an exhibition of Chinese paintings featuring the noted Chinese painter Xu Beihong—took place in Moscow in the middle of 1934. According to Ge Gongzhen, a noted Chinese journalist who was in the centre of the Chinese negotiation with the Soviet over Mei Lanfang’s visit to the Soviet Union, Mei’s original plan was a trip to Europe for the purpose of studying modern European theatre. In the early March of 1934, in his discussion with the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS) about the preparation of the Moscow exhibition of Chinese paintings, Wu Nanru, chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Moscow, mentioned in passing Mei’s planned trip to Europe, asking the VOKS officials what kind of reception the Soviet would give to Mei Lanfang should Mei go to Europe by way of Moscow.