Second Sister-in-Law Li Remarries

Introduction

Adapted by Liu Meicun and others from Wang Anyou's story and first staged by the Shandong Lü Opera Troupe in 1954

Second Sister-in-Law Li Remarries is a representative play of Lü opera, adapted in 1954 by Liu Meicun, Liu Qiying and others from Wang Anyou's story of the same name and first staged that year by the Shandong Lü Opera Troupe. It is set in a village of central and southern Shandong in 1947, where the young widow Li falls in love with the farmer Zhang Xiaoliu, is mocked under the old customs and blocked by her mother-in-law, nicknamed Fears Nothing, and finally marries him with the support of the head of the women's association. The script is admired for its plain language and true feeling, above all in the threshing-floor scene and the scene of the betrothal. The play won a first prize for scripts at the East China opera festival of 1954 and was filmed as an opera film in 1957, directed by Liu Guoquan, with Lang Xianfen as Li and Yang Ruiqing as Zhang Xiaoliu. Wang Anyou's home village of Xiangyang in Rizhao, where the story takes place, has a Lü opera troupe named after the heroine that still performs.

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