Mountain drama fete showcases ethnic life
Chinese director Huang Dingshan will never forget Lunar New Year's Eve of 2014. Then, thousands of miles away from his home in Beijing, Huang was in Xichang city, in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, in Southwest China's Sichuan province, spending the day with actors of the Liangshan Song and Dance Troupe, the first national performing art troupe of the Yi ethnic group, which was founded in 1956 in Sichuan.
They were busy with rehearsing for the original opera, Yi Hong, which tells the story of how the Yi people of the Daliangshan mountain area of the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture battled alongside the Red Army in the 1930s.
The Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture has the largest population of Yi ethnic people. It is also home to 14 ethnic groups, including the Hui and Tibetans.
