Mei was the first person from China to translate the works of the American novelist Vladimir Nabokov to Chinese language.
His younger sister, Mei Baoyue (梅葆玥) (1930 - 2000), a Beijing opera actress who graduated from Aurora University.
When Hong Kong was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, Mei went to Guiyang, Guizhou, he studied at Qinghua High School (清华中学).
In 1947, Mei was admitted to Yenching University, majoring in English at the Department of Western Languages, he took French and German as elective courses.
Mei married translator Tu Zhen (屠珍) in 1956 in Beijing, she was a graduate of Peking University, where she majored in French language.