Net These Butterflies
October 18, 2007
The story known as Liang Zhu or The Butterfly Lovers is one of the most popular and well-known legends of China. While often called the Romeo and Juliet of the East, the first record of Liang Zhu is from the ninth century, 700 years before Shakespeare.
The heroine of Liang Zhu is Zhu Ying Tai, a young girl from a wealthy and prestigious family. Reminiscent of the feminist icon Hua Mu Lan, Ying Tai dresses up as a boy in order to attend school. There, she befriends Liang Shan Puo, a male student who comes from a less established family. Over years of school together, Shan Puo is oblivious that his best friend is female and in love with him. When Shan Puo visits Ying Tai at home, she reveals her gender and romantic feelings, and he requites her love.
Tragically, Ying Tai’s parents have already agreed to wed her to the son of another renowned family, and the two young lovers must separate. Shan Puo dies of a broken heart. On the way to her wedding, Ying Tai passes by Shan Puo’s grave, the tomb opens up, and she throws herself into the grave. The two are reborn as butterflies to signify the sad brevity of their time together.
In Asia, the legend is ubiquitous. From Chinese operas to animations and TV dramas to motion pictures, Liang Zhu has spawned a plethora of artistic interpretations of the story. The Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto can be heard from every corner of China and anywhere overseas Chinese reside. In 2006, the People’s Republic of China made a bid to add Liang Zhu to UNESCO’s Intangible World Heritage list.
The most recent tribute is the TV drama Liang Shan Puo Yu Zhu Ying Tai, which aired on China’s Guangzhou TV this past May. With beautiful scenery and exquisite costume design, this series displays some of the best visual aesthetics Chinese culture has to offer, although some story elements and acting go over the top.
How Ying Tai’s character is portrayed and developed really makes or breaks any version of the story. Unlike the 1994 motion picture The Lovers, directed by Tsui Hark, which portrayed the heroine as an idiot sent to school by her parents as a last ditch attempt to make her first wife material, this 2007 drama portrays Ying Tai as an intelligent character who can hold her own in literary competitions and political debates.
Sadly, the 2007 series is currently available only if you have access to import DVDs from China, and you also need the proper Chinese DVD player to read those discs. And good luck finding anything with English subtitles for those who don’t read or comprehend Chinese. My advice is to try your local Chinatown. It sure is hard to get your hands on good Asian media here in the States.
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