Questioning and Seeking the Husband

Introduction

From the older play Ten Beauties: Yan Lanzhen questions her new husband Zeng Rong in a Yue opera favourite

Questioning and Seeking the Husband is a Yue opera in period costume taken from the older play Ten Beauties, which Fei Cuitang and other actors staged in the all-male era of Yue opera and which the all-female troupes also played often. Zeng Rong, whose father was ruined by the minister Yan Song, lives in hiding as the adopted son of one of Yan's men and marries Yan's young kinswoman Yan Lanzhen; searching for evidence at a birthday feast in the Yan mansion he is discovered and hides in another lady's study, and his bride goes looking for him. The Yue opera queen Yao Shuijuan played Yan Lanzhen, and the Shanghai Yue Opera House later re-adapted the play from her performing script, while the Zhejiang Yue Opera Troupe made its own version in 1954. Jin Caifeng's Yan Lanzhen was praised as so lifelike that she was paired with her heroine of The Jade Hairpin. Jin explained that the spoiled, bold Yan Lanzhen faces a clash with her husband that puts lives at stake, so the part needs movements borrowed from the huashan role type.