Classic play overseen by First Lady makes debut

An actor performs in the latest version of The White Haired Girlin Yan'an city, Northwest China's Shaanxi province on Nov 6, 2015, 70 years after the play debuted in the city in 1945. (Photo: cnwest)

BEIJING, Nov. 7 -- A theatrical remake of The White Haired Girl, an all-star production overseen by Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan as the artistic director, received a standing ovation at its debut on Friday.

Produced by the Ministry of Culture, the opera kicked off a one-month nationwide tour starting from the northwestern Chinese city of Yan'an.

Highlighting the everlasting popularity of the opera, Dong Wei, Deputy Minister of Culture, said that this remake is designed to pay tribute to the all-time classic.

Among the audience were Liang Gui, provincial publicity chief of Shaanxi, and Xu Xinrong, Party chief of Yan'an.

It came as no surprise that Yan'an was chosen as the starting point of the national tour. Once a revolutionary mecca before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the city had also attracted writers to its lively cultural scene.

"The original version of The White Haired Girlpremiered in Yan'an 70 years ago. Now this new version came back to the city, making people here feel really special," said Jiang Feng, deputy governor of Shaanxi province.

Set in the 1940s, the storyline centers on the life of Xi'er, a girl of humble background in Shaanxi province.

Xi'er escapes to hide deep in the mountains after her father Yang Bailao is killed by the greedy and cruel debt collector Huang Shiren.

Due to her difficult circumstances and prolonged malnutrition, she loses the color of her youth, as well as of her hair, which turns white. It is the birth of new China that allows her to lead a normal life once again.

The opera, composed by Yan Jinxuan, has become a household name nationwide for generations since it was first performed in 1945, with singer Wang Kun in the leading role.

Several remakes have been produced thereafter, including a Peking opera performance in 1958, a ballet version in 1965, as well as an opera starring soprano Guo Lanying and a namesake film adaptation in 1950.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the opera, the first of its kind composed in China after Chairman Mao Zedong's speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art in 1942.

As President Xi Jinping stressed to artists not to pursue commercial success at the expense of producing work with artistic and moral value during a cultural and art seminar in October last year, the Ministry of Culture shoulders the responsibility to pass on the classics in art and culture, guide the future of China's artistic development, and discover new performing talents.