MISTER NINE
His undeniable skill earned him respect that he was not always comfortable with. While it is undeniable that he was a leader in his field, the title "master" made him uneasy.
"The term puts a forced distance between me and those I interact with," he once said.
His friends often called him -- "Jiuye" (Mr. Nine). In Chinese, "jiu" as in Baojiu has the same pronunciation as the number nine.
Off stage, Mr. Nine had interests and hobbies as varied as the characters he portrayed on stage.
"I enjoy bel canto, symphonies, ballet, and ethnic music," he once said, adding that he also had a soft spot for Celine Dion and Michael Jackson. "I also like photography and flying model planes."
Although he never did become an engineer like his brothers, he was certainly more than capable and was often found tinkering in his spare time. He once made his own "motorbike" by installing a motor onto a bicycle, and could assemble radios and fashion his own phonograph discs.
He had a passion for cars and motorbikes, but his father forbade him from driving. It was only after Mei Lanfang passed that Mei Baojiu, a man grown, got his driver's license.
Once an old lady saw him driving around the suburbs of Beijing, topless.
"'I saw you play Mu Guiying yesterday,' the woman said, 'How come you are driving like this today?'" recalled Mei Baojiu once, "And I yelled back, 'Yes, yesterday I was a little girl, but today I am the big man I always am."
He once flew a friend's private plane, but just for half an hour: "Not long enough," he said wistfully.
"I think we should all live life to the full. It would have been a pitiful life if I only knew the Peking Opera," he said.
END OF AN ERA?
While Peking Opera is regarded as a cultural treasure, audience numbers are dropping. Its future looks uncertain.
Mei Baojiu had 49 students, but just one nandan apprentice: Hu Wenge. There is no one in the Mei family to inherit or pass on the techniques that he and his father developed.
It had been Mei Baojiu's lifelong mission to reverse that trend.
Wei Liqing met Mei Baojiu 11 years ago when he first began his Peking Opera training. He said he can still remember how Mei Baojiu's face lit up when he told him that his high school was offering Peking Opera classes.
"You could tell he was really excited to hear it," said Wei, now 27.
But his bright eyed dimmed when he found out that only 10 students chose the class, whereas English literature and Western arts were oversubscribed.
As a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, Mei drafted proposals designed to promote traditional Chinese culture with the younger generation.
At the annual session of the CPPCC National Committee in March this year, he proposed that teenagers should receive cultural education, with subjects including Peking Opera and calligraphy.
"It's about how youngsters absorb our culture. Every year, it's the focus of my proposals at the CPPCC session. Enlightenment received in childhood is very important," he said.
In 2012, he said that traditional Peking Opera such as "Farewell My Concubine" should be adapted to cartoons and animations for children of middle and primary school age.
"We must at least give the kids a chance to fall in love with Peking Opera," Mei Baojiu said.
"What we really need at the moment, however, is not performers, but audiences," he said.
