Beneath the Red Banner (Zhenghongqi Xia) will be presented at the Capital Theater from July 8 to 10.

Compared to the other three plays, Red Banner is more like a Beijing play rather than a Shanghai production.

It is adapted from the novel of the same title by Lao She (1899-1966), the renowned Beijing writer and dramatist. Set in Beijing at the end of the 19th century, it was turned into a play by Beijing native playwright Li Longyun.

In this sense, it is a great challenge for the Shanghai Drama Center to produce. And more over, Director Zha Lifang is neither from Shanghai nor Beijing, but southwest China's Sichuan Province. So, it is not a made-in-Shanghai play in the strictest sense.

Lao She devoted his heart and soul to the autobiographical novel but was unable to finish it before passing away in 1966.

Capturing the events shortly after his birth in the winter of 1899, Lao She's pen vividly depicted the life of qiren, the Manchu people, during the turmoil as the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was dying. Foreign troops invaded, the peasants revolted and democratic reform was carried out -- but soon failed.

The Manchus had a rigid sense of organization. Its military and civilian communities were grouped into eight banners, named by colors, and the red banner was one of them.

When the Qing Dynasty was in decline, the nobles managed to continue their depraved life and were not fully aware of the nation's dangerous position, and their future. But there were others who realized that the nation's fate was hanging in the balance. They devoted their lives to struggle against the invaders.

The humble Li started working on the play in 1985, but the script was not finished until 1998.

To create the play, Li read all of Lao She's works, studied the history of the time and visited his wife, children and their old home in Beijing.

The play finally premiered in Shanghai at the end of 2000.

The success of the play should also be attributed to Jiao Huang, who depicts Lao She in the play.

"In my eyes, Lao She is a traditional Chinese intellectual, temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous, being strict with himself and never creating publicity about himself," said Jiao, a renowned actor in the country.

(China Daily June 25, 2004)