Touring West Lake

Introduction

A Qinqiang play grown from the Ming chuanqi The Red Plum Blossoms, its scenes widely performed

Touring West Lake is a traditional Qinqiang play that grew out of Zhou Chaojun's Ming chuanqi The Red Plum Blossoms and centres on Li Huiniang. An older Qinqiang text existed, its date unknown; according to the playwright Cao Yu, the scene Ghost's Grievance was not in it. In 1953, after a discussion among dramatists called by the opera reform office of the Northwest culture bureau, Ma Jianling wrote the revised version, which opened in Xi'an in October. After further discussion in Shaanxi's arts circles, a fourteen-scene version adapted by Ma Jianling and others followed in 1957 and restored the ghost. Scenes such as Ghost's Grievance, Secret Meeting, The Slaying and Rescuing Pei are widely performed, and Li Huiniang's fire-blowing is praised as a stage feat. In 1958 and 1959 the play went to Beijing with Qinqiang troupes. The newer pieces Regret at West Lake and A Renewed Red Plum Bond were re-created from it, and the latter keeps the classic Ghost's Grievance and Slaying sequence and the fire-blowing feat.

Parts

1. Ghost's GrievanceA scene Cao Yu said the old text did not have
2. Secret MeetingLi Huiniang's secret meeting with Pei
3. The SlayingStaged together with Ghost's Grievance as a single excerpt
4. Rescuing PeiThe scene of Li Huiniang rescuing Pei