For those who are interested in seeing how an ancient heroine is viewed by modern people, Hua Mulan is worth checking out.

But do not expect to be entertained as in the Disney animation Mulan.

Hua is said to have lived around the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534).

Legend has it that one day, her father was ordered to serve in the army. Fearing he was too old to fight, and considering her only brother was still too young, Hua disguised herself as a man and took his place.

For many years, the troops fought bloody campaigns and Hua distinguished herself for her courage and talent.

Earning notice for her deeds, Hua was summoned to the court by the emperor, who wished to appoint her to a high office as a reward for her outstanding service. Hua declined his offer but accepted a fine horse instead.

Only later, when her former comrades in arms went to visit her, did they learn she was a woman.

The ancient literary work that best portrays Hua is the poem titled Mulan (Mulan Ci), dating back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-581).

However, stage director and playwright Li Liuyi sees Hua in a different light.

In Li's play, running at the Beijing People's Art Theater until July 4, Hua is weary of fighting and living as a man.

She wants to take a bath in the river and regain the consciousness of herself as a woman. That desire creates a struggle between her wish to regain her true identity and her obligation to fight as a man.

The latter is represented by Hua's father, a character with a very minor role in the ancient tale.

To him, Hua's idea of finding herself through a bath is totally unacceptable, for Hua is already a man, a soldier, who will be seen as cheating the emperor by revealing her real gender.

Meanwhile, Zhang Guan and Li Dai, two ghosts who fought under the direction of Hua and Hua's father, feel humiliated to learn that Hua is a woman.

Hua's father makes things clear. He says he will allow her to take a bath only if she can cut apart the stream in the river with her sword. Otherwise, she will have to kill him before she fulfills her wish.

Hua sets to work, chopping at the river. Suddenly the water turns into ice and is cut apart.

Hua melts the ice with her own body, and is freed in the water.

Seeing that he can not prevent Hua from bathing and to protect his honour, Hua's father kills himself.

Hua's father, Zhang and Li all disappear.

Is the whole thing reality or Hua's imagination?

The names of Zhang Guan and Li Dai are taken from the Chinese idiom Zhangguan Lidai, which means to put Zhang's hat on Li's head, a play of words with a message: One thing can be confused with another.

"I feel a revival of humanity in this play," said opera composer Jin Xiang. "It is full of modern aesthetics."

Hua Mulan is the second play of Li's trilogy of war heroines, which tries to portray three ancient heroines with a new perspective.

Like the first play Mu Guiying, which debuted last September, Hua Mulan also reflects its theme through one episode in the heroine's life.

Mu Guiying however, takes place as the heroine is going to a battle, while Hua Mulan shows a heroine trying to shake off her warring robe.

Whereas Mu chooses to fight for her people, Hua decides that her wish is to live as a woman.

If Mu Guiying tries to establish heroism, Hua Mulan does the opposite to scrutinize the things that helped make the heroine.

In line with Mu Guiying, Hua Mulan maintains a cast of four traditional Chinese opera actors and a "one tub, two chairs" set Li created on the base of the traditional Peking Opera set of "one table, two chairs."

The tub, which represents the bath, is a symbol of privacy. It grows in significance for Hua, a woman disguised as a man.

Hua Mulan serves as a second experiment for Li's "new drama," which adapts an innovative traditional Chinese opera language.

"The 'new drama' is different from traditional opera, drama, Western opera, musical and variety show, but it might incorporate all these styles," said Li.

Obviously, Hua Mulan is an unrealistic play, and it takes a form similar to stream of consciousness, which makes it hard for the audience to follow the plot.

Music plays a more active role in Hua Mulan than in Mu Guiying, though the latter uses a band of nine people while the former only had four musicians.

This is indicated in the long prelude, which goes a long way towards depicting a warring state.

The most notable feature of the music in Hua Mulan is the new timbres developed on traditional instruments.

Percussion is heavily used in the play, but the results are different from the straightforward sound of percussion in traditional Peking Opera.

Most frequently heard in Hua Mulan is a quick ascending motive played on the gong, not in the usual way, but with sticks beating a set of gongs of different pitches, placed horizontally on a table.

The soft and quick series of notes produced on the gong creates a new listening experience for the audience.

Appearing many times during the play, the motive at times seems to symbolize flowing water or heart throbbing.

Both the prelude and epilogue end with the unusually husky sound of a jinghu (two-stringed bowed instrument), which is like wailing voice unable to speak.

"For a composer, different timbres are just like different colors for a painter," said Guo Wenjing, the composer who wrote the accompanying music for the drama, Noise Is Also a Color.

The dizi (bamboo flute) creates a lyrical atmosphere when needed, for example, when Hua is taking off her clothes and feeling her feminine identity.

The singing part of Hua Mulan is basically Peking Opera, while some parts of the play are also sung in Kunqu Opera, usually when a dizi is being played.

Kunqu is the classical Chinese opera. It originated in southern Jiangsu Province and inspired the development of other local operas, including Peking opera.

The elegant and exquisite style of Kunqu Opera perfectly portrays the inner side of the heroine, set against the masculine world dominated by the men.

Li's drama and Guo's music seem aimed at the same thing: To find new meanings on common materials. However, Guo's work proves to be more successful than Li's in Hua Mulan.

It is probably because the play's libretto, written by Li himself, is rather bookish and appears to lack a general clearness.

Fortunately, this is remedied by excellent performances, especially by Ying Zi, who plays the title role.

However, there were varying opinions after a June 29 showing.

The play was "unable to fully exhibit the actors' talents," said an old Peking Opera fan. He said that he did not sympathize with the play and only came because of free tickets given out that night.

Jiang Qihu, who played Zhang Guan, said acting in modern plays enriched his performing experience.

A distinguished Peking Opera actor from the China National Peking Opera Theater, Jiang has also played in many experimental dramas and operas like Singapore director Ong Keng Sen's King Lear, and the chamber opera Night Banquet composed by Guo.

"You can appreciate traditional Peking Opera in my acting in Lu Bu and Diao Chan or Heroes' Gathering (Qun Ying Hui), but here I'm doing something different," said Jiang. "This performance provides me an opportunity to show another side of my talent."

Li said the play was a challenge to the audience, yet he wanted very much to hear the audience's opinions.

Having produced two rather heavy plays, Li said the third part of the trilogy, Liang Hongyu would be a comedy dealing with the heroine's family affairs.

(China Daily July 2, 2004)