Three photographs by Chinese art history scholar Benjamin March, of theatrical hand gestures by the Chinese opera performer Mei Lanfang. March took a number of photographs of Mei's hands during a visit to Beijing in 1931. The photographs were published in woodblock form in his self-published book, "Orchid Hand Patterns of Mei Lanfang" in 1935.
梅兰芳 马尔智
Biographical / Historical:
East Asian art historian, curator and lecturer, Benjamin Franklin March Jr., was born in Chicago on July 4, 1899 to Benjamin and Isabel March. He studied, lectured, and wrote in the United States and China and through his works gained respect as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese art during the 1920s and 1930s. March was East Asian art lecturer at the University of Michigan, and curator of Asian art at the Detroit Institute of Art. Although he lived only thirty-five years, Benjamin March was a respected and influential scholar of Asian art. Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) was the most celebrated 20th century performers of female roles in Chinese opera. Mei had an internetional following and was acclaimed by a sequence of Chinese governments.
Benjamin March Papers, FSA.A.1995.10. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Judith March Davis, 1995