Jia was invited by the North American producer to the opening of the Shanghai Ballet ButterflyLovers on Friday. It was an inexpensive tour production with a minimum of stage decorations, but much enjoyed by the audience. The story (from Wikipedia):
A young woman named Zhu Yingtai from Shangyu, Zhejiang, disguised herself as a man travelling to Hangzhou to study. During her journey, she met and joined Liang Shanbo, a companion schoolmate from Kuaiji (會稽, Kuàijī, now known as Shaoxing)
in the same province. They studied together for three years, during
which their relationship strengthened. When the two parted, Zhu offered
to arrange for Liang to marry her 16 years old fictitious sister. When
Liang travelled to Zhu's home, he discovered her true gender. Although
they were devoted and passionate about each other at that point, Zhu
was already engaged with Ma Wencai (馬文才, Mǎ Wéncái), a man her parents
had arranged for her to be married to. Depressed, Liang died in office
as a county magistrate. On the day Zhu was to be married to Ma, whirlwinds
prevented the wedding procession from escorting Zhu beyond Liang's
tomb. Zhu left the procession to pay her respects for Liang. Liang's
tomb split apart, and Zhu dived into it to join him. A pair of
butterflies emerged from the tomb and flew away.
The Shanghai Ballet production starred Ji Pingping as Zhu Yingtai and Sun Shenyi as Liang Shanbo.
