Liu Hulan (opera)

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Liu Hulan (刘胡兰) is a 1954 Chinese-language western-style opera by Chen Zi. It is based on the death of a 14-year-old communist party girl Liu Hulan, who was elevated into a revolutionary martyr. Part of the original opera was composed in 1949, only 2 years after her death, and revised into a full-scale opera in 1954. Several other composers such as Ge Guangrui also contributed to Chen's opera.{{cite web |url=http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artists/2006-06/30/content_83398.htm |title=Liu Hulan |accessdate=2012-11-21 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304065605/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artists/2006-06/30/content_83398.htm |archivedate=2016-03-04 }} A similar opera based on another revolutionary martyr is Sister Jiang.

An early piece of art depicting Liu as a heroic martyr was the spoken drama Liu Hulan.{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}{{Rp|page=161}} In Spring 1947, members of the Combat Dramatic Society founded by General He Long read an account of Liu's martyrdom in Jinsui Daily.{{Rp|page=161}} A member of the organization interviewed Liu's family and local villagers and used these accounts to collectively write the spoken drama over the course of several weeks.{{Rp|page=161}}Inspired by the success of The White-Haired Girl, in 1948 the Combat Dramatic Society adapted their spoken drama into the operatic version, Liu Hulan.{{Rp|page=161}}

In 1950, one of Liu's executioners (Zhang Quanbao) attended a performance of the opera Liu Hulan.{{Rp|page=164}} He broke down emotionally while seeing the audience's animosity toward the character ("Big Beard") which represented him.{{Rp|page=164}} He was captured in 1951, put on public trial, and executed.{{Rp|pages=164-165}}