Veteran actress to restage masterpiece Pan Jinlian

Acclaimed Kunqu Opera actress Liang Guyin may be 77 years old, but she will soon return to the stage to play the role of a character who is 60 years younger as part of the 11th Classic Chinese Opera Series at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

The winner of the prestigious Plum Performance Award, China's top award for operas and dramas, will play the lead role of Pan Jinlian in the eponymous opera that revolves around a character from the 17th-century Chinese novel, Jin Ping Mei.

In the story, Pan poisons her husband after her extramarital affair was discovered and is later beheaded by her husband's younger brother. Although Pan's name in Chinese is a synonym for a slur against women, audiences have in recent times started to sympathize with the character as she was forced to marry her husband, who had a disability.