A PLA musical to honor heroic young woman

A girl of Russian-Chinese descent is being described as "an angel of friendship and peace" in Suifenhe city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province. Born in 1928 in Suifenhe, which is located on the country's border with Russia, Galiya Vasilievna Dubieva died during World War II at the age of 17.

The Performing Arts Company of PLA Air Force has produced a musical, titled Galiya, based on her story. Set in 1945, when the former Soviet Red Army joined the Chinese military to fight Japanese troops, the musical will premiere at the Great Hall of the People in October as part of programs marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The Japanese army had detained many Chinese women, children and elderly people at its base near Tianchang Mountain, and Dubieva, who also spoke Japanese, was sent by Russian and Chinese officials to persuade the Japanese troops to surrender. But she never returned from the Japanese station.