Xiqu

Romance of the West Chamber is a classic in the repertoire of Yuan Xuefen and followers of her stylistic school. Its emphasis on poetic ambience in staging is hailed as one of the most faithful adaptations of the original play by Wang Shifu (1260 – 1336) in the Yuan period among contemporary works. It is also one of the four classics in the stock repertory of the Shanghai Yue Opera Group. The use of the distinctive features of the Yuan school offers vivid portrayals of the characters.
The story takes place in the first year of the Zhenguan reign of the Tang period. A scholar Zhang Gong is on his way to visit his good friend, General Du Que, in Puguan. He passes by the Temple of Saving All Souls and there, he meets Cui Yingying, daughter of the late Prime Minister, who is staying at the temple. He falls in love with Yingying at first sight, so he uses studying at the west chamber as a pretext to be close to her. That night, Yingying goes to the garden to offer incense as usual. Zhang cannot withhold his feelings and recites a poem as a declaration of love to Yingying from the other side of the wall. Yingying responds in kind, and Zhang is deeper in love with her. Meanwhile, the bandit, Sun Feihu and his men are besieging the temple, threatening to take Yingying away as his bride by force. Lady Cui has no other way but promises to marry her daughter to whoever is able to rescue them from the dire situation. Zhang volunteers, and writes to General Du for help. Du’s troops come in time and rescue the stranded. But now Lady Cui goes back on her words: she tells Yingying to address Zhang as ‘brother’, so that the lovers cannot get married. Yingying asks her maid, Hongniang, to deliver a poem to Zhang with a pretext. The missive asks Zhang to meet her in the garden that night. Zhang jumps over the wall for the rendezvous, but by then, as a young lady trained in conservative decorum, Yinging is afraid that Hongniang might discover her intent. So she gives Zhang a set down before she leaves. Stunned and rejected, Zhang falls ill. On hearing this, this time, with the help of Hongniang, Yingying goes to the west chamber at night to visit him. Lady Cui finds out what Yingying has done and interrogates Hongniang, who dares to chastise her as the cause of such immoral behaviour all because she does not keep her promise. Lady Cui cannot but allow Yingying to marry Zhang. But there is one condition: she claims that the Cui family has never had a son-in-law who has no official title for three generations, and demands Zhang to go and sit for the civil examination at the capital. Only when he comes back as a laureate would she allow Yingying to marry him. Distressed over their separation, the lovers say a tearful goodbye.