Wang Xiao Drives the Donkey

Introduction

The earliest Lü opera play, whose donkey prop gave the form its first nickname, the donkey opera

Wang Xiao Drives the Donkey is the earliest play of Lü opera, and the donkey used as a prop on stage gave the form its first name, donkey opera, a word later written with a character that sounds the same. Lü opera took shape around 1870, and from about 1940 the newspaper of the Bohai region spread the name Lü opera, which was formally fixed in 1952. Shi Dianyuan and others first staged this piece in costume in Shijia village, Niuzhuang town, Guangrao County, which began Lü opera as a theatre form; one account dates that performance to around 1900. It is one of the basic short plays of the repertoire, together with The Good Sister-in-Law. Lü opera is on the national intangible heritage list, and its entry names this play among the representative works.