Art Beat

Beijing

Tian's 1999 play returns

In 1999, Tian Qinxin rose to fame for her drama, The Field of Life and Death. Adapted from Xiao Hong's 1935 novel by the same name, the play portrays the miserable lives of farmers in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the author's homeland, in the 1920s and '30s. Now, 16 years later, Tian has gathered the original cast to restage it in Beijing. The lead performers are Han Tongsheng (pictured above, right), 61, and Ni Dahong (above, left), 55.