The ballet really isn't very representative of the show. The title of that ballet piece means, I think, "Butterfly" (in a very loose sense) and is based on the show "The Butterfly Lovers" (Chinese: Liang Shan Po yu Zhu Ying Tai)
It tells of the tragic love story between Liang Shan Po and Zhu Ying Tai. Zhu is a rich girl who disguises herself as a boy to attend school, because girls were not allowed to go to school back then. Liang is a poor but smart/hardworking student in that school. They fall in love, made promises to get married etc. But Zhu's father wanted her to marry another rich family, and so she was sent home from school.
Liang finally graduates and gets a post as a governor of a small town. He goes to see Liang's father to ask for Zhu's hand in marriage. Zhu's father refused, (and in the version I watched) had Liang beaten up badly.
All this time, Zhu is locked up in her room after attempts of escape. One of the most powerful scenes in this show is when Zhu hears of Liang's death, she finally lets the marriage make up to be put on her face. As her mother is putting the thick powder on Zhu's face, she's perplexed at a sudden appearance of red dots dropping. To Zhu's mother's horror, she realises that Zhu is actually crying tears of blood. Zhu has been crying so much that her tears have dried up and she can only cry blood.
On the way to the groom's manor, a sand storm blows up. Zhu sees a gravemarker in the distance, and jumps off the sedan to go to it. It's Liang's grave. Suddenly, a hole opens up under the grave and Zhu jumps in.
The storm stops and everything is quiet, then two butterflies fly around, happy to be together finally.
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Date: 2006-08-09 04:50 am (UTC)It tells of the tragic love story between Liang Shan Po and Zhu Ying Tai. Zhu is a rich girl who disguises herself as a boy to attend school, because girls were not allowed to go to school back then. Liang is a poor but smart/hardworking student in that school. They fall in love, made promises to get married etc. But Zhu's father wanted her to marry another rich family, and so she was sent home from school.
Liang finally graduates and gets a post as a governor of a small town. He goes to see Liang's father to ask for Zhu's hand in marriage. Zhu's father refused, (and in the version I watched) had Liang beaten up badly.
All this time, Zhu is locked up in her room after attempts of escape. One of the most powerful scenes in this show is when Zhu hears of Liang's death, she finally lets the marriage make up to be put on her face. As her mother is putting the thick powder on Zhu's face, she's perplexed at a sudden appearance of red dots dropping. To Zhu's mother's horror, she realises that Zhu is actually crying tears of blood. Zhu has been crying so much that her tears have dried up and she can only cry blood.
On the way to the groom's manor, a sand storm blows up. Zhu sees a gravemarker in the distance, and jumps off the sedan to go to it. It's Liang's grave. Suddenly, a hole opens up under the grave and Zhu jumps in.
The storm stops and everything is quiet, then two butterflies fly around, happy to be together finally.
Sad story, makes me cry everytime I watch it.