Background

The story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai has been a household love story in China for more than 1000 years. The heroine Zhu Yingtai, disguised as a man, becomes bosom friends with Liang Shanbo, a classmate of hers for 3 years. Before returning home, Yingtai implies to shanbo that she will be his wife. Knowing that Yingtai is woman, the delighted Shanbo hurries to her home, only to find that her family has betrothed her to someone else against her will. Under the pressure of the patriarchal clan rules and feudal ethics, they die for love and return into a pair of butterflies. The moving tragic legend extols pure love and freedom of love. First appearing in the early Tang Dynasty, the story was put on the stage in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and plays based on the story was widely performed during the Ming and Wing dynasties. The story has been handed down to this day in manifold forms.

Top - Back