Nearly a thousand Nanjing University teachers and students enjoyed Honghu Lake Red Guards, an ethnic song and dance drama performed by Hubei Song and Dance Theater on campus in the evening of April 11.
The show was part of the 2018 High Art Entering Campus Tour sponsored by the State Minister of Education.
Sitting in the audience was Liu Hongjian, vice chancellor of Nanjing University, and leaders of the CPC committee and the youth league.
“Waves of Honghu Lake beat waves and glitter as the sun shines….”
The song took the audience across space and time to the banks of Honghu Lake. They saw the organizing of a local, revolutionary armed force “Honghu Lake Red Guards,” saw people fight with the Kuomingtang security corps and local bully Peng Batian, and admired the spirit of these predecessors in safeguarding their hometown and local people.
The story was condensed but breathtaking. The lines were simple, bringing those characters to life with only few words. The elegant dance took the audience to “the fields of lotus in the large lake.” The music contributed to the development of the story.
Accompanied by the Jingzhou Tianmian Flower Drum and local ditties, with strong features of Hubei, the actors won warm applauses from time to time.
The dramatic demonstration and symphonic music wrote the symphony music epic with obvious national characteristics, showing the story during the revolutionary period and the sense of commitment of the heroes.
“I was very moved to hear some parts of the drama, which are wide spread,” said Qin, a student from School of Sociology. “The music took me back to the old time and enabled me to feel the spirit of our revolutionary predecessors.”
Most people in the audience do not have the experience of the period of time described by the drama, but they felt as if they had been in the middle of the people’ s liberation movement.
The spirit of the Honghu Lake Red Guards, along with songs and chants from the stage heated up the blood of the audience. The story of Han Ying and Liu Chuang leading people to fight for liberation moved the audience.
