The White Haired Girl

"The White-Haired Girl" (Chinese:白毛女; pinyin: Bái Máo Nǚ) is a Chinese opera and ballet by Yan Jinxuan to a Chinese libretto. The first opera performance was in 1945. The first ballet performance was by Shanghai Dance Academy, Shanghai in 1965.

Along with "Red Detachment of Women", the ballet is regarded as one of the classics of revolutionary China, and its music is familiar to almost everyone who grew up during the 1960's. It is one of the Eight model plays.

Plot

("Based on the ballet version")

It is the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival. The peasant girl, Xi'er, in the village, Yanggezhuang, Hebei Province, is waiting for her father to return home to celebrate the Spring Festival together. Her girl friends come to bring her paper cuttings to decorate the windows and a kilogram of wheat flour to make jiaozis.

Yang Bailao, Xi'er's father, has been away to avoid the debt collector from the despotic landlord, Huang Shiren. He returns home at dusk, with no gift other than a red ribbon to tie to the hair of Xi'er for the festivity of the holiday.

The landlord will not let them have a peaceful and happy Spring Festival, and the debt collector comes for the farm land rent which Yang has been unable to pay. They kill Yang Bailao, and take away Xi'er by force as his concubine.

At the home of the landlord, Xi'er is forced to work day and night as a slave and is exhausted. Zhang Ershen (literally Second Aunt Zhang), an elderly maid of the landlord, is very sympathetic of Xi'er. Xi'er dozes off while trying to take a short break. The mother of the landlord comes on the scene and, with her hairpin, pokes Xi'er's face to wake her up. The landlord mother then orders Xi'er to prepare her a lotus seed soup. When the soup is served, the landlord mother, displeased with the taste, pours the still-boiling soup on Xi'er's face. Outraged by the pain and anger, Xi'er picks up the whip that the landlord uses to punish her and beat the landlord mother up. The landlord mother falls and crawls on the floor attempting to flee while Xi'er continues to whip her with her utmost strength. Xi'er gets her vengeance, but she is subsequently locked up by the landlord.

One day, the landlord leaves his overcoat in the living room and in the pocket of the overcoat is the key to Xi'er's cell. Zhang Ershen is determined to help Xi'er. She takes the key and opens the door for Xi'er, and she flees. Shortly, the landlord finds Xi'er missing, and sends his accomplice, Mu Renzhi, and other men to chase her. Xi'er comes to a river that stops her. She takes off a shoe and leaves it at the river side, and then hides in the bush. Mu Renzhi and his men find the shoe and assume that Xi'er has drowned herself in the river, and they report to the landlord as such.

Xi'er escapes to the mountains, and in the following years, she lives in a cave, gathers offerings for food from a nearby temple. She fights attacking wolves and other beasts. In time, her hair turns white.

On one stormy night, the landlord, Huang Shiren, and several of his other servants come to the temple to worship and provide offerings. Their trip is stopped by the thunderstorm. It just so happens that Xi'er is now in the temple too, and by the light of a flash of lightning, the landlord sees her -- with her long white hair and shabby clothes that have been weathered to nearly white. He thinks it is the reincarnation of a goddess who has come to punish him for his mistreatment of Xi'er and other despotisms. He was so frightened that he is literally paralyzed. Xi'er recognizes that it is her arch enemy and seizes the opportunity to take further revenge. She picks up the brass incense burner and hurls it against the landlord. The landlord and his gang flee.

Meanwhile, her fiancé, Wang Dachun, has joined the Eighth Route Army and fought the Japanese invaders. Now he returns with his army to overthrew the rule of the imperialist Japanese and the landlord. They distribute his farmland to the peasants. Zhang Ershen tells the story of Xi'er, and they decide to look for her in the mountains. Wang Dachun finally finds her in the cave with her hair turned white. They reunite and emote.

Music

Unlike other ballets, the music of "The White-Haired Girl" is more like that of a musical, "i.e.", it blends a large number of vocal passages, both solos on the part of Xi'er and choruses into the music. Because of their mellifluous melodies, these songs became very popular. The following is a partial list of these songs:

*"Looking at the World"
*"The Blowing North Wind"
*"Tying the Red Ribbon"
*"Suddenly the Day Turns to Night"
*"Join the Eighth Route Army"
*"Longing for the Rising Red Sun in the East"
*"The Sun Is Out"
*"Dear Chairman Mao"

External links

* (1950 film version)
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4n8DdxXn6s&mode=related&search= Youtube: Xi'er's Solo in Act I]

References