The Butterfly Lovers is one of the four Chinese folk love stories. Its poignant romance is world-renowned, and it is hailed as the “Chinese Romeo and Juliet”.

The story originated from the Eastern Jin Dynasty when Leung Shan-pak and Chuk Ying-toi (a girl disguised as a lad) met by chance on their way to Hangzhou to study and became sworn brothers. After having studied together for three years, Ying-toi was urged to return home by her father. On the trip, Shan-pak sent her off for eighteen miles, but was oblivious throughout to Ying-toi’s repeated hints of her true identity. As a last resort, Ying-toi made the promise to marry her sister to Shan-pak and invited him to propose to her parents. Unfortunately, when Shan-pak finally arrived, Ying-toi had already been betrothed to Ma Man-choi. The lovers were heartbroken when they bid each other farewell in a pavilion, and Shan-pak died of illness after returning home with grief. On the day of her wedding, Ying-toi went to Shan-pak’s grave to mourn and sacrificed herself for love. Ma Man-choi arrived in anger and dug up the grave to see that Leung and Chuk had transformed into a pair of butterflies. The lovers were finally united.

The Butterfly Lovers is about the yearning for the freedom of marriage of a young couple in a traditional society, and the touching story of a woman’s bold pursuit of love. Commonplace interpretations also praised Leung and Chuk for their moral integrity and filial piety, since they would rather bear the suffering of separation than to fight against fate and parental authority. 

The Generals of the Yeung Family is a well-known story based on the achievements of the three generations of the Yeung family who guarded the northern territories of China during the Northern Song dynasty. It has been adapted into novels, plays and operas, and among them is the battle of wits between Muk Gwai-ying and Yeung Chung-bo most popular.

Muk Gwai-ying, the daughter of Muk Yu, King of Dingyao, was zealous, arrogant, and good at military tactics. She once captured Yeung Chung-bo alive and made him her husband. Being a favored child in the family, Yeung Chung-bo was impetuous and ambitious, and often acted rashly and got into trouble. There is much fun seeing them acting as rivals or battle partners in the opera. Although they were husband and wife, Gwai-ying was the commanding general and Chung-bo had to follow her order. Their relationship in different situations illustrates traditional ethical values, such as the hierarchy of the husband and wife in the family and the supremacy of the country over the family.

Muk Gwai-ying Routing Hongzhou is about the battle fought by Gwai-ying and Chung-bo in order to rescue General Yeung Yin-chiu, who was trapped in Hongzhou by Liao troops. Frequent fighting scenes build up tension and excitement in the opera. During a critical moment of the battle, Gwai-ying, concealing her pregnancy from her husband, assumed the role of the commander-in-chief. In Hongzhou, despite Gwai-ying’s order for the troops to stay put, Chung-bo was provoked by the enemies and led his army to fight. Defeated, he returned to face with the punishment of execution imposed by the infuriated Gwai-ying, only to be rescued by the petition of Yeung Yin-chiu. At the end, they joined force to defeat Liao troops and freed Hongzhou.

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng led his Great Shun rebel army to invade and sack the capital Beijing, leading to the suicide of Emperor Sung Zing. This is known as the Jiashen Incident, which led to the fall of the Ming dynasty. Just before that, Princess Cheung-ping was betrothed to Chow Sai-hin, the son of a high official. Sung Zing wanted to safeguard the imperial dignity and ordered everyone to commit suicide. Although Cheung-ping survived the catastrophe, she was separated from the prince consort. After some time, they reunited in a nunnery. They pretended to accept the arrangement of a wedding ceremony by the Qing emperor in exchange for a proper burial for Sung Zing and the release of the Ming crown prince. At the ceremony, Cheung-ping and Sai-hin exchanged their vows in the imperial garden of Yuehua Palace and then took poison under a camphor tree to express their loyalty to the Ming court.

The Floral Princess was originally a Kunqu opera written by Huang Xieqing in 1832 based on the Jiashen Incident. It was not until the 1950s that Tang Dik-sang, encouraged by Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin, re-arranged the play into a Cantonese opera libretto. Tang’s version highlighted the moral integrity of the princess and her consort, and portrayed the princess as a heroine, which is very different from Huang’s rendering of the characters according to historical records. Tang’s re-arrangement and the performance by Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin made the Floral Princess an immediate success, and the growing media industries at that time further boosted its popularity through records, movies and radio broadcasting.

In 1974, Chung Sun Sing Opera Troupe, founded earlier by Lam Kar-sing and Yuen Yiu-hung, staged their new production The Priceless Jade in Tai Ping Theatre. The idea for the opera was born during a visit to the Great Wall of China by Lam Kar-sing, Lee Siu-wan (screenwriter) and Ng Kwan-lai (renowned Cantonese opera performer), and Lee Siu-wan eventually created The Priceless Jade based on the Peking opera The Reconciliation Between a General and the Chief Minister.

King Zhaoxiang of Qin offered the King of Zhao fifteen walled-cities in exchange for the invaluable Heshibi jade. As Qin was powerful and Zhao was weak, the King of Zhao and the ministers all reckoned that Zhaoxiang might not keep his promise, and Zhao would lose both the jade and the territories. The King delegated the brilliant Lun Sheung-yue to undertake the mission to deliver the jade to Qin. Before the departure, fearing his young son would be orphaned and lack a good upbringing if the mission failed, Sheung-yue wanted to tattoo the word “country” on his son’s arm, to remind him to follow his father’s step to serve the country. The story has a happy ending when Sheung-yue came home safe. He used his wit to return the jade to Zhao and was promoted to become the chief minister.

The Priceless Jade epitomizes the genre of Cantonese opera librettos. Using a historical episode as a plot, the librettist enriched the story with moral and ethical values, which are conveyed to the public through the idealization of the characters and their demeanor, and expressed in a folk performing art form.