The Chinese classic ballet The White-Haired Girl will be staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on June 25 and 26, in commemoration of the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

The ballet, to be performed by the Shanghai Ballet, tells a story about a girl's pursuit of liberation and true love and struggle against injustice.

The story is set during the war against Japanese invasion, during the Second World War. The girl's father, a poor tenant farmer, is killed by a cruel local landlord. She is then forced into servitude to the landlord. To escape the brutal treatment, she flees to a mountainous area and hid in a cave. Due to great sufferings she experienced, her hair turned grey. She was later found and saved by the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China.

Since its premiere in Shanghai in 1965, the ballet has been performed nearly 2,000 times in China and other countries. It won the Gold Medal for the Best Classical Dance Work of the 20th Century in China.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)