The world's attention has turned to an all-woman-farmer rural
theater troupe in central China's Henan Province after a compilation of their
plays was released as a textbook at two of the country's most
prestigious universities.
Members of the troupe have been writing and performing plays
based on the daily events around them since the year 2000. Under
the leadership of 39-year-old Wang Xia, the troupe performs at the
Zhongyue Office in the city of Dengfeng.
Students at Beijing's Tsinghua University and Nankai University
in neighboring Tianjin have been studying the collection of plays,
entitled Grass Roots Also Have Voices, to learn about
rural culture, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported.
The troupe was invited to perform in Hong Kong in July 2002, the
same year Wang was nominated as one of the "1,000 Women for the
Nobel Peace Prize 2005."
Wang, a native of East Zhangzhuang Village, said a woman
lecturer from the Department of Social Anthropology at Manchester
University was planning to come to her mountainous village this
month to exchange views and help set up a cooperation program for
rural women.
"Our principle is to invigorate cultural life, encourage
self-education and promote gender equality," Wang said of her
troupe, whose members range in age from 21 to their 70s and who
come from four administrative villages.
Wang was inspired to reach out to the community in June 2000
after taking a class on social gender development in Dengfeng that
had been offered by the local women's federation. Wang's first step
was to set up a rural publicity team with the help of her
teacher.
The Rosy Clouds Cultural Publicity Team directed and preformed
their first play, entitled Mountain Flower, to reflect the
challenges local women faced in overcoming family difficulties. For
example, the children of some families had to drop out of school
after the families lost their cultivated land and compensation
money due to marriages, divorce, or the death of a husband.
The play, first performed in May 2001, was a success, and the 22
performers were invited to perform in central China's Hubei and Hunan provinces, Yunan Province in southwest China, Shandong Province in east China and Beijing in
north China. A year later, they were invited to perform in Hong
Kong.
Liu Yuejie from Dengfeng's Zhongyue Office said Wang's culture
association helped disseminate cultural, legal, and scientific
knowledge to local farmers, and helped create unity.
Wang said her association also had an anti-family-violence team
as well as three other teams, including one to handle publicity and
one to encourage senior citizens to live healthy lives.
Wang and her team members rehearse and perform their plays in
three old tiled-roofed houses in her village.
(China Daily March 21, 2007)