New Peking Opera Play: The Disinterested Official Yu Chenglong

The Disinterested Official Yu Chenglong, a play composed and staged by Shanghai Peking Opera Theater, is a new historical Peking opera play combining traditional and modern elements, and a "grand slam" play winning all major domestic awards of arts. It is starring Shang Changrong and Guan Dongtian, the famous Peking Opera performing artists of China.

The play draws the plot from the novel Honest and Upright Official Yu Chenglong written by Wang Yongtai. Yu Chenglong (starring Shang Changrong), an honest Qing official praised by Emperor Kangxi as "the most disinterested official under heaven", discovered that his predecessor dealt cases with utter disregard for human life, and a feigned and misjudged case concerning some ten thousand people had been done, which caused the disorder of society and desolation of the land. Therefore, he reported the case to Infante Kang (starring Guan Dongtian) regardless of his personal safety, and finally made the local people able to live and work in peace.

Ever since it was created in 2002, the Disinterested Official Yu Chenglong has undergone continuous modifications. Innovations have been made in the aria, music and stage design, which not only enrich the play with the charm of Peking Opera, but also endows it with modern attraction.