DPRK opera still blooming

Most Chinese people over 50 know the movie The Flower Girl of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. When it was first shown in China in 1972, the story of the poor girl who sells flowers and eventually joins a struggle for revolution touched audiences and its theme song became popular throughout the country.

Now the Sea of Blood Opera Company from North Korea is set to give five performances of its stage adaptation of the film at the National Center for the Performing Arts from tonight to April 19. The production will then tour 11 other cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin.

The opera version of The Flower Girl has actually been performed in China three times before. When Kim Il Sung wrote the opera in 1930 in Northeast China's Liaoning province, it was performed at a local school.

In May 1973, the opera was staged in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Shenyang. The late premier Zhou Enlai watched the show at the Great Hall of the People. In 1998, The Flower Girl was performed in 10 cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

Since its premiere in Pyongyang in 1972, the opera has been staged more than 1,300 times.

"Watching the opera, the audience sees that people of a stateless nation who are deprived of sovereignty are more dead than alive," says O Jing Cher, artistic director of the Sea of Blood Opera Company as well as the opera's director.

"Only when they set out on the road of revolution can they defend the sovereignty of the nation and enjoy a genuine life as an independent people."

Soprano Wu Shen Suk, who stars in the lead role, was selected by General Kim Jong Il himself and received his guidance.

The 7-year-old Sin Hiang Xim, who plays the younger sister of the flower girl, has performed in more than 30 shows.

"Beijing has too many cars and the streets look complicated, which has made my mind muddled," she said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.

(China Daily 04/15/2008 page19)