Xi'er, the heroine in the play The White Haired Girl, on the stage in Yan'an city, Northwest China's Shaanxi province on Nov 6, 2015, 70 years after the play debuted in the city in 1945. [Photo/cnwest]

Due to her difficult circumstances and prolonged malnutrition, she loses the color of her youth, as well as of her hair, which turns white. It is the birth of new China that allows her to lead a normal life once again.

The opera, composed by Yan Jinxuan, has become a household name nationwide for generations since it was first performed in 1945, with singer Wang Kun in the leading role.

Several remakes have been produced thereafter, including a Peking opera performance in 1958, a ballet version in 1965, as well as an opera starring soprano Guo Lanying and a namesake film adaptation in 1950.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the opera, the first of its kind composed in China after Chairman Mao Zedong's speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art in 1942.

As President Xi Jinping stressed to artists not to pursue commercial success at the expense of producing work with artistic and moral value during a cultural and art seminar in October last year, the Ministry of Culture shoulders the responsibility to pass on the classics in art and culture, guide the future of China's artistic development, and discover new performing talents.