On February 17, 1930, Chinese Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (1894–1961) led a theater troupe to perform at the 49th Street Theater on Broadway in New York, U.S. The aisles were filled with spectators, including over 3,000 people from various industries. Subsequently, Mei Lanfang performed in cities such as Seattle, Chicago and Washington D.C. for a total of 72 days.

Nearly a century later, at the Mei Lanfang Theater in Beijing, the reality show of the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC), Mission 100: Peking Opera, was broadcast to the world. Lebanese student Nadim Daib performed an excerpt of Peking Opera piece San Cha Kou, or At the Crossroads, and this innovative form of Peking Opera went overseas online, garnering a total of 2.12 million views.

In September 2017, after a culture talk on Peking Opera given by the China National Peking Opera Company in Russia's Saint Petersburg State University, children go on stage to learn body movements from professional Peking Opera actors.

Renowned on international stage

Established in 1942 as the Yan'an Peking Opera Research Institute in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, the CNPOC was officially founded in 1955 in Beijing, with Mei Lanfang as its first president. Major members included Li Shaochun (1919–1975), Yuan Shihai (1916–2002), Ye Shenglan (1914–1978) and Du Jinfang (1932–2021). 

In the past decade, the CNPOC has visited 47 countries and regions, conducting 112 batches of exchanges involving 3,368 people with foreign countries and with China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It has also hosted 460 performances and lectures, attracting over 350,000 viewers.