He decided to create a show about the Lijiang River in Guilin based on the legends of Liu Sanjie, a folksinger who sang to help the poor, and he pondered how to stage the legends amongst the landscape.
"The scene of the fishermen's boats floating on the Lijiang River is a performance in itself. The scenery and Liu Sanjie are name cards of Guangxi," Mei says.
He proposed the project to local officials after six months' preparation.
Mei invited Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue, later known as the "Impression Troika", to produce the show. In 2009 alone, Impression Liu Sanjie made a profit of 55 million yuan and the show's success dispelled any investor uncertainty about the commercial viability of the new form of performance, and started a craze in producing similar shows.
Mei says that, "I don't like repetition and franchised my shows. I want every show of mine to be artistically unique."
Having rejected 80 percent of local government's invitations to create open-air shows for them, he currently runs eight shows over the country, saying with unrestrained pride.
Mei says he still sees lots of potential in landscape shows and says: "Though I've moved to Beijing, most of the time I'm away from home and busy exploring the cultural and tourist values of the country's mountains and rivers."
By Mei Jia
Editor: Wen Yi
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