Photo: courtesy of Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts of China

 On the Way to Poverty Relief, a musical drama about a Party chief of a village in South China who gave her life to combat poverty in China's rural areas, was performed at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts of China on Saturday and Sunday.

The musical drama tells the story of 30-year-old Huang Wenxiu, first secretary of a village's branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC), as she works to lift the village out of poverty. 

A graduate of Beijing Normal University, Huang could have easily found a job in a first-tier city, but she chose instead to return to her hometown, Baise in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to contribute to the city's development. Huang helped lift 88 households of the 103 in the village out of poverty during her tenure there.

Unfortunately, before Huang had the chance to show what she was really capable of, she died at the age of 30 in a flash flood while traveling through Leye county in June 2019.

Photo: courtesy of Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts of China

 It took two years to create the musical drama. The production team visited Baise, where Huang was born and worked, several times and adjusted the script a dozen times.

The songs combine bel canto with folk singing skills, and draw from the folk music of Guangxi, where many ethnic groups live.

Tian Qinxin, director of the musical, tried to "move" the original scene of the mountain villages in Baise to the stage, so she chose steel frames to represent the houses of villagers.

Photo: courtesy of Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts of China

 Tian also designed butterflies flitting about on the stage as there is a local legend in Guangxi that when the dead miss their families, they will return as butterflies. This sad and beautiful legend made Tian feel the image of Huang more vividly, and butterflies become a symbol throughout the play.

The play will move on to the Shanghai Grand Theatre for shows on October 24 and 25.