Yueju Opera talent hopes for broader audience

Empowering women

On the program that pursues female empowerment, Chen Lijun says: "Feminine strength is diverse. It can be gentle, resilient, brave or wise. I believe feminine strength is undefined and infinite."

The "infinite female strength "runs through the evolution of the all-female Yueju Opera troupes.

When Yueju Opera was first created, the performers were male farmers, because women were barred from the theater due to constraints in feudal society.

Influenced by the New Culture Movement, an intellectual and cultural campaign in the 1910s and 1920s that sought to modernize Chinese society, women sought liberation and stepped out of home.

Inspired, a group of women from Shengxian county, Zhejiang province, formed the first all-female Yueju Opera troupe and went to Shanghai to make a living. And they got popular and recognized.

"The birth of the all-female Yueju Opera was influenced by the awakening of female consciousness at that time," Luo Huaizhen, a playwright and adviser to the China Theatre Association, tells China Art newspaper.

"Yearning for urban life and emotional freedom, they maintained independence and stayed sober-minded. These spiritual pursuits and values were intentionally or unintentionally reflected in the performances of the all-female Yueju Opera, becoming the era's voice for women's liberation," Luo says.