In Northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a kind of folk song called hua'er is so popular that almost all the ethnic groups - Han, Hui, Salar, Dongxiang, Tu, Bao'an, Tibetan - sing them.

Literally meaning flowers, hua'er is characterized by its wide range of prolonged tones and most of the songs are love songs.

The Gansu Opera Company has produced a musical, Hua'er and Shaonian (Flowers and Young Men), featuring these hua'er folk tunes woven through touching love stories involving people from different ethnic groups.

When Tibetan girl Meiduo and her flock of sheep are attacked by wolves, the young man Salder from the Bao'an ethnic group saves her. The two fall in love but Meiduo's father has already fixed her engagement with another young man Gahu. Meiduo elopes with Salder. The furious father brings them back and wants to kill the young man. Meanwhile, the Salar girl Malianhua has fallen for Gahu.

Composer Guo Sida, student of acclaimed Chinese composer Guo Wenjing, has created thrilling music that incorporates characteristic hua'er tunes.

The 2006 Super Girl winner Tan Weiwei plays Meiduo. Tan studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and performed in the musical Butterfly Lovers, last year. Zheng Yuanqi stars as Salder and Sun Zhongwei from the Gansu Opera Company, as Gahu. Malianhua is played by Jia Jingsi.

Choreographer Zhao Liping is a lead dancer from the China Oriental Song and Dance Company and was part of the team of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics.

7:30 pm, June 17, 18
Century Theater, Liangmaqiao Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing
5166-4511/4611

(China Daily June 12, 2009)