The_Legend_of_the_Red_Lantern
The Legend of the Red Lantern (Chinese: 红灯记; pinyin: hóng dēng jì) is one of the Eight model plays promoted during the Cultural Revolution in China. The official version was that of a Beijing Opera. It was additionally adapted to a piano-accompanied cantata by pianist Yin Chengzong, formed by a cycle of arias extracted from the opera itself.
The play is based on a movie titled There Will be Followers (自有后来人) made in 1963, which is based a novel titled There Will be Followers of Revolution (革命自有后来人) by Qian Daoyuan (钱道源) first published in 1958. The novel in turn is based on a true story of communist undercover agents working at a Huicui (辉崔) railway station in Hulin, fighting Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The class enemies in such the model operas were depicted as 'cruel' and 'oppressive'.[1]