The Opera The White-haired Girl

The White-haired Girl, the opera in five acts, is based on the folklore: The despotic landlord Huang Shiren drove the tenant peasant Yang Bailao to suicide and raped his daughter Xi’er, who had to escape to mountains. With the help of the Eighth Route Army, Xi’er regained a normal life. The opera was first created collectively by Yan’an Lu Xun College of Art in 1945, with the playwrights as He Jingzhi and Ding Yi and the composers as Ma Ke, Zhang Lu, Qu Wei, Huang Zhi, Xiang Yu, Chen Zi and Liu Chi.