A historic performance

Back in 2007, when the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing was launched, one of its first performances was the classic Chinese opera Jiang Jie.

Wang Li, then a 25-year-old singer, who had graduated from university not long before and won a top national music award, the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, stood out from her peers and was chosen to play the titular role in the opera.

"It was a challenging task for me. I can still remember walking into the NCPA, which was so new, that the parking lot was still under construction," recalls the singer, who spent more than a year preparing herself for the performance.

After making her successful debut at the NCPA in 2007, Wang toured the nation performing as Jiang Jie in the opera for five years.

Now, a decade on, Wang is set to return to the NCPA to once again reprise her portrayal of the revolutionary heroine. The opera will be staged on Friday, which will mark her 101st appearance in the role, with additional performances on Saturday and Sunday.

Having debuted in Beijing in 1964, the Chinese opera was a huge success and toured nationwide. It was adapted from the revolutionary novel Hong Yan (Red Crag) by Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan, which recounts the actions of a group of underground Communists and their heroic battle in 1949 on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The Chinese opera centers on one of the female martyrs, Jiang Zhuyun, also known as Jiang Jie ("sister Jiang"), who was born in 1920 in Southwest China's Sichuan province and joined the Communist Party of China when she was 19.

She was arrested in 1948 and detained in a Chongqing prison. A year later, she was killed at the age of 29. The image of Jiang, with hair down to her shoulders, wearing a red jacket over a blue cheongsam and wrapped in a long white scarf, is an iconic one.

"The nervousness of playing the role while working with so many veteran artists is still vivid. The story of Jiang is well known among Chinese audiences and to me, playing the role successfully meant singing all the songs without any mistakes," Wang says.

On Saturday, the singer appeared at the NCPA to share her stories with music lovers, recounting memories of playing the character, as well as singing songs from the opera, such as Hong Mei Zan (Ode to the Red Plum Flower) and Embroidering the Red Flag.

The Chinese opera was staged in the capital last year to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Directed by Wang Xiaoying, it was restaged by the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater last year and Wang played the role for a 100th time.

"Every time we restage the classic opera, we go back to the beginning," says Wang Xiaoying, adding that the songs by the veteran scriptwriter Yan Su (1930-2016) and composer Yang Ming, both of whom worked on the original version of the opera, keep the creative team inspired. Yang, who is 87, also works on the creative team for this new version.

Before its original premiere in 1964, the composer, along with other members of the production, traveled to Sichuan province and Chongqing to collect material. Though opera is a Western art form, the composer combined elements of Sichuan folk music and Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) into his compositions.

Born and raised in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, Wang Li showed a talent for music as a child. At age 14, she was enrolled in Anhui Professional College of Art to study music, where she learned operatic singing and Huangmeixi, a provincial form of traditional Chinese opera. Three years later, she traveled to Beijing to study singing at the China Conservatory of Music and joined the art troupe of the People's Liberation Army Air Force after graduation.

"When I first played the role of Jiang Jie, I was not married. Now I am a mother, which helps me gain a deeper understanding of the role," says Wang Li, adding that in the opera, Jiang Jie is a hero, who devotes her life to the country. She is also a woman who is separated from her son, and whose husband has been killed by the enemy.

Last year, the singer, along with some members of the opera's creative team, visited Zhang Guimei, a teacher working to promote female education in mountainous areas of Yunnan province. Zhang is a big fan of the opera and was named among the 29 outstanding members of the CPC who received the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, in 2021.

"We spent two days teaching the students and teachers to sing songs from the opera and Zhang impressed me because she remembers them all," recalls Wang Li. "The love for the songs expressed by the young students will keep the character alive."