Seven years after its previous appearance, the Heilongjiang Peking Opera Theatre returns to the festival with a new revival of the Guan-school classic Zhan Hongzhou. Centered around Mu Guiying taking command to relieve the siege of Hongzhou, the work balances civil and martial performance, combining the devotion to family and country with theatrical spectacle, and is a signature piece of the Guan-school’s daomadan (warrior-maiden) role. Guan-school artists Xing Meizhu and Jia Xilin serve as artistic advisors, while Plum Blossom Award winner Zhang Huan, a third-generation inheritor of the school, takes the leading role. Classic feats such as kaoqi da chushou (returning weapons while wearing the armour flags) and tangma (stylised horsemanship) set off superb singing, speech, acting, and combat, displaying the distinctive power of Peking opera’s martial tradition.
