A Love Story of Butterflies

Zhu Yingtai was an academically talented teenage girl. After a decade of “good good study and day day up” under the guidance of a family tutor, she yearned for further education.

However, before 1949, it was considered to be inappropriate for boys and girls to study together in one room, except in a family studio among relatives.

Nevertheless, since Zhu Yingtai was the only child of her father and her father was the only parent in the family who would do everything for his daughter, Zhu Yingtai was eventually able to secure her senior’s consent for her to go to a prestigious boarding school in Hangzhou.

There was one condition though: the girl must hide her true gender identity from other students in the class.

Zhu Yingtai agreed and she and her maid all put on male clothing.

On the way to the school, Zhu Yingtai met Liang Shanbo when both took a break at a roadside pavilion.

Upon conversation, Zhu Yingtai found Liang Shanbo was a supporter of girls’ equal rights to education and was attending the same school, she suggested they should become sworn brothers.

So the pair sank to their knees before heaven and swore their loyalty to the brotherhood.

From the day they arrived at the college, the pair shared one studio, one dining room and one bedroom for a good three years.

Liang Shanbo never suspected Zhu Yingtai was actually a girl.

One day, Zhu Yingtai received an express mail from her father. The old man said he was gravely ill and urged his daughter to return home without delay.

Before departure, Zhu Yingtai revealed her true identity to her teacher’s wife and asked the lady to hand her jade fan pendant to Liang Shanbo as a token.

Liang Shanbo walked 18 lis (9 km) to see his sworn brother off until they reached the pavilion where they first met.

Along the way, Zhu Yingtai attempted everything intellectually possible to imply that she was a girl and Liang Shanbo should see her father to propose a marriage ASAP.

Yet a single-minded Liang Shanbo didn’t get a clue.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye and Zhu Yingtai was at her wit’s end.

In an idealistic natural setting which is often seen in typical Chinese landscape paintings – a river nearby, mountains in the distance, boats sailing in a stream, buildings with water views, and cliffs with plants – Zhu Yingtai told her dummy sworn brother that she had an identical twin sister and wondered if Liang Shanbo would like to ask her father for her hand.

After receiving a confirmation that the sister looked, talked and walked just like Zhu Yingtai, Liang Shanbo joyfully accepted the matchmaker’s marriage proposal.

When Zhu Yingtai rushed home, she only found her father was as healthy as a bull and as happy as a clam. He accepted a marriage offer for his daughter from a local governor’s family.

Zhu Yingtai’s world collapsed. She urged her father to decline the offer, but the old man said he had already taken the betrothal gifts and drank wine with the governor, which virtually means a marriage contract had been formally signed by both parties.

As Zhu Yingtai insisted she could not marry the governor’s son, her father became suspicious, and interrogated her maid, “Have your miss unashamedly fallen in love with a man in the school?”

When Liang Shanbo returned to the school, the teacher’s wife passed him Zhu Yingtai’s message as well as her jade pendant.

It was a mind-blowing revelation to the man and he immediately set off at full speed for Zhu Yingtai’s hometown.

Yet it was all too late. Zhu Yingtai’s father told her daughter to see her lover for the last time and say goodbye forever.

Now it was Liang Shanbo’s turn to see his world collapse before him. The poor man returned home and died of a broken heart.

Zhu Yingtai’s heart also broke into pieces when she learned about her lover’s death, just shortly before her wedding.

Upon hard negotiation, Zhu Yingtai’s wedding sedan was allowed to stop at Liang Shanbo’s burial site for her to pay final respect to the man in the grave.

When she approached Liang Shanbo’s tomb, Zhu Yingtai smashed her head against the tombstone and killed herself …..

After Zhu Yingtai committed suicide at Liang Shanbo’s graveyard, she was buried with her lover.

Then one day, people noticed a pair of white butterflies emerging on the site circulating the tomb …

They believed Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo were happily together once again in the form of a beautiful butterfly couple.

Liang Shanbo is played by Wu Fenghua (吴凤花), the best inheritor of Fang Ruijuan-style for young male roles;

Zhu Yingtai is played by Chen Fei (陈飞), one of the best inheritors of Fu Quanxiang-style for young female roles.

Since Yueju opera by principle is an all-female performing art, Liang Shanbo on the stage is in fact also a crossdresser as the role is played by actress Wu.