Mustache as Resistance: Representation and Reception of Mei Lanfang’s Masculinity

Mei Lanfang, the internationally renowned male player of female roles, astonished those who were concerned about his personal and professional well being during the Second Sino-Japanese War by growing a mustache. At the empirical level, the mustache signaled a dismissal of the androgynous glamour for which Mei’s body was best known. At the allegorical level, Mei’s wartime mustache foregrounded an unyielding and unmistakably masculine Chinese body.