Tales of enduring romance

A new stage production explores three popular Chinese love stories through the mediums of contemporary dance, theater and music, Chen Nan reports.

When archaeology graduates and young couple Fan Jinshi and Peng Jinzhang left Peking University in 1963, they soon found themselves separated when Fan took up her post as a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy in Gansu province, and Peng became a teacher at Wuhan University in Hubei province.

When they married on Jan 15,1967, they looked on their separation as a temporary situation. However, their long-distance marriage lasted for 19 years, and only ended when Peng moved to Dunhuang to work alongside Fan at the Dunhuang Academy as a researcher in 1986.

A major stop on the ancient Silk Road, the city of Dunhuang in northwest China is best known for the Mogao Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site which is home to a priceless collection of Buddhist sculptures and murals set in 735 caves carved out over the course of a millennium.

Born in Beijing and raised in Shanghai, Fan was the head of the Dunhuang Academy between 1998 and 2018. When she first arrived at the Mogao Caves at the age of 24 in 1962, some 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang city, to start her internship at the Dunhuang Academy, there was no fresh water or electricity there. Despite the harsh conditions, she spent 57 years working in Dunhuang and has devoted her life to the research and protection of the Mogao Caves.

Peng, born in Suning in Hebei, was one of the co-founders of the archaeology department of Wuhan University. He was credited with increasing the number of labeled caves from 492 to 735, from 1988 to 1995. During the excavations, a number of important ruins and precious relics were discovered, many of which provided evidence of cultural exchanges between China and other countries. On July 29, 2017, Peng died of cancer.

"Without my husband, I wouldn't have become the person I am today. He knew my love for Dunhuang and why I couldn't leave, so he sacrificed his career at Wuhan University and moved to Dunhuang to support me," says Fan, who is now 81. "When we were at university, he bought me handkerchieves after he noticed me wrapping one around my wrist. He always saved a seat for me in the library. During the days when we lived apart, he wrote me lots of letters, which were a great comfort and helped me to get through those difficult times. My husband was very romantic although he never said 'I love you' to me."

Their love story was recorded in Fan's autobiography that was published by Yilin Press in October and has been adapted to form part of Eternity: Butterfly Lovers, a stage production written to mark the 60th anniversary of the well-known Chinese violin concerto Butterfly Lovers.

The show will premiere in Shanghai on Nov 17 before moving to Ningbo, Zhejiang province, on Nov 25 and then onto Beijing on Dec 24.

"The violin concerto Butterfly Lovers is a celebration of true love, which is about dedication, unconditional love, understanding and facing adversity together," says Yu Lina, 79, the creator of the show, during an event in Beijing. Impressed by the love story between Fan and Peng, Yu says it immediately sprung to mind when she started to prepare for the stage production.

"Every time we want to mark the creation of this great musical work and pass on its legacy, we perform it again and again. It's great to explain the piece through a real-life love story," Yu says.

Butterfly Lovers premiered in Shanghai on May 27, 1959, where Yu performed as the solo violinist. The violin concerto was composed by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao when they were both students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Featuring melodies and musical elements from traditional Yueju Opera, the musical was inspired by a tragic love story from an ancient Chinese folk tale long considered to be the Chinese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. The concerto has been hailed as a classic ever since and has been performed all across the world.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Butterfly Lovers premiere, Yu performed the concerto in Beijing along with other Chinese violinists of different generations, including Sheng Zhongguo and his wife, Japanese pianist Hiroko Seta.

Directed by Xu Jun, the new show gathers together a group of songwriters, including lyricist Liang Mang and Chinese-American composer David Fang, to tell three Chinese love stories in one program.

Chinese dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin and dancer Zhang Yapeng will perform the section devoted to Fan and Peng.

The second story will center on Ba Jin, one of the most prominent Chinese writers of the 20th century, and his wife, Xiao Shan. Chinese actor Wang Zhifei and his wife, actress Zhang Dinghan, will play the couple.

The final story centers on Princess Wencheng (628-680), who was sent by a Tang Dynasty (618-907) emperor to marry the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo to forge an alliance. Liao Changyong, an operatic baritone, who is also head of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, will play the role of the Tibetan king.

At the end of the show, Yu will perform the violin concerto once again.

"Each story will be told through a different art form - a contemporary dance work, a play and a musical," says director Xu. "What we want to present to the audience are stories about true love, which is not an outdated concept, even nowadays."

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Global 11/04/2019 page14)