The theatrical plays in China today have been criticized for failing to reflect life and reality by becoming more “noble.” Yet, the field has witnessed a favorable change in recent years. Some excellent plays popped up that show more about people’s lives. Some of these realistic plays highlight national spirit and epoch spirit in China today, and still some pay more attention to individuals in ordinary life.

Some examples are: drama “I’ll Wait for You in Heaven,” Peking Opera “Hua Ziliang,” Lv Opera (a local opera of Shandong Province) “Mending the Sky,” Meihu drama “Late Rose,” and Yu Opera “The Village Leader Li Tiancheng.”

Highlighting national spirit and epoch spirit

The China Arts Festival, China Theater Festival and Yingshanhong Folk Arts Festival are among the national-level festivals where the best performances in the country are staged. About one-third of the performances staged in these festivals during the past several years are realistically themed. A quarter of the prize plays in some top-level arts projects are about reality and the typical Chinese lifestyle.

The number tells that outstanding realistic plays have increased in recent years, the majority of which are dramas.

Dramas like “The Field of Life and Death” (Sheng Si Chang), “Light of a Million Hopes” (Wan Jia Deng Huo), “The Father,” “Errenzhuan in Autumn,” “The Shadow Play Artists of Ling River” (Ling He Ying Ren) and “Autumn Begins” (Li Qiu) stand out as they echo the ups and downs that China has seen through the past decades. The determined spirit of Chinese people shown in these dramas is touching and inspiring.

The drama “The Shadow Play Artists of Ling River” by Liaoning People's Art Theatre tells of Chinese, who were once described as a “tray of loose sand,” came to unite as one to defend the invading Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s. The drama “Ma Ti Sheng Sui” by Battlefront Culture Troupe of the Political Department of the Nanjing Military Area focuses on how a group of fall-out female soldiers chased after the Red Army during the Long March, which was a massive military retreat from 1934 to 1936 undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. The drama extols the heroic spirit of the Red Army with touching stories.

The drama “I’ll Wait for You in the Heaven”

The drama “I’ll Wait for You in the Heaven” is about belief and understanding. The drama “Autumn Begins” depicts businessmen in North China's Shanxi Province at the beginning of the 20th century. Set in Pingyao, the cradle of modern Chinese commerce, this play follows the ups and downs of several generations of a family involved in the banking industry. The drama applauds the traditional spirit of Shanxi merchants, meanwhile giving thorough contemplation and positive criticism to the historical reasons behind their wax and wane.