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 "slug": "the-white-haired-girl",
 "title": "The White-Haired Girl (白毛女)",
 "updated": "2026-11-01",
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 "excerpt": "The White-Haired Girl (白毛女, Bai mao nü): Chinese story of Xi'er, based on the White-Haired Fairy legend; 1945 Yan'an opera by He Jingzhi and Ding Yi, 1950 Northeast Film Studio film, 1958 Peking opera, and 1964 Shanghai ballet, a model work.",
 "snippet": "The White-Haired Girl (白毛女, Bai mao nü): Chinese story of Xi'er, based on the White-Haired Fairy legend; 1945 Yan'an opera by He Jingzhi and Ding Yi, 1950 Northeast Film Studio film, 1958 Peking opera, and 1964 Shanghai ballet, a model work.",
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 "markdown": "# The White-Haired Girl (白毛女)\n\n**The White-Haired Girl** (白毛女) is a Chinese story of a peasant girl, Xi'er, driven into mountain exile by a landlord's abuse until her hair turns white, first staged as a new-style opera at Yan'an in 1945 and later adapted into film, [Peking opera](https://www.edgepedia.org/peking-opera), and ballet, becoming one of the most performed works of modern Chinese theater.<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Origin | Based on the \"White-Haired Fairy\" (白毛仙姑) folk legend circulating in the Jin-Cha-Ji border region, brought to Yan'an in 1944<sup>[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)</sup> |\n| Opera premiere | Created collectively at the Yan'an Lu Xun Academy of Arts; first performed for delegates of the CCP's Seventh Congress on 28 April 1945<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup> |\n| Stated theme | \"The old society turned people into ghosts; the new society turns ghosts back into people\"<sup>[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)</sup> |\n| 1950 film | Black-and-white feature by Northeast Film Studio, directed by Wang Bin and Shui Hua, starring Tian Hua as Xi'er and Chen Qiang as the landlord Huang Shiren<sup>[3](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/300229/)</sup> |\n| Film reception | Opened in 1951 in 155 cinemas across 25 cities, reaching about 478,000 viewers in a single day; won a Special Honor Award at the 6th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup> |\n| Ballet | Created by the Shanghai Dance School from 1964, with an early version at the 5th \"Shanghai Spring\" festival and the full ballet premiering at the 6th in 1965; one of the eight model works, performed more than 2,000 times over six decades<sup>[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202501/20/content_30052842.html)</sup> |\n| International reach | Japan's Matsuyama Ballet staged the earliest ballet version in 1955 and toured it to China repeatedly<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202501/20/content_30052842.html)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### The story\n\nThe plot centers on Xi'er (喜儿), daughter of the poor tenant farmer Yang Bailao (杨白劳), in a village of pre-liberation North China. She is betrothed to the young peasant Wang Dachun (王大春). The landlord Huang Shiren (黄世仁) covets Xi'er and presses Yang's debts to force the match; in the film version Yang is made to press his thumbprint on a deed selling his daughter, and on [New Year's Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-years-eve) he drinks brine and kills himself. Xi'er is seized into the Huang household, where Huang rapes her. After a failed rescue, Dachun flees to join the [Red Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-army); a servant helps Xi'er escape into the mountains, where she lives in a cave on offerings from a temple and wild fruit. Her hair turns completely white, and villagers who glimpse her take her for a \"White-Haired Fairy\" spirit. When Dachun returns with his army unit to carry out rent and interest reduction, the truth is uncovered, Huang Shiren is punished at a public trial, and Xi'er, her hair black again, marries Dachun.<sup>[3](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/300229/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLXcU3JLh-8)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://www.iq.com/wiki/zh_cn/album/%E7%99%BD%E6%AF%9B%E5%A5%B3-%E7%8B%AC%E5%AE%B6%E4%BF%AE%E5%A4%8D%E7%89%88-1950-1d9s57254l4)</sup>\n\nThe core of the legend is stable across its variants: a girl persecuted by a landlord hides in the mountains, her hair whitens from years of deprivation, and she is rescued by the [Eighth Route Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/eighth-route-army).<sup>[7](https://culture.cnjiwang.com/ccws/202005/3124529.html)</sup>\n\n## The 1945 opera\n\nThe \"White-Haired Fairy\" story reached the Yan'an Lu Xun Academy of Arts (Lu Yi) in 1944, carried back by the Northwest Battlefield Service Group, and circulated there as a short story draft by Lin Man (Li Mantian) titled *The White-Haired Woman*. Zhou Yang, the academy's director, proposed making it into a large-scale new national opera as a gift for the Seventh Party Congress. A creation group of eleven, including Shao Zinan, Wang Bin, He Jingzhi, Ding Yi, and Wang Dahua, was organized under the drama department head [Zhang Geng](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-geng), working from autumn 1944 to the end of that year.<sup>[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://culture.cnjiwang.com/ccws/202005/3124529.html)</sup>\n\nShao Zinan's first draft used the qin qiang form and was judged unsuitable for staging; the group rewrote it, with [He Jingzhi](https://www.edgepedia.org/he-jingzhi) and Ding Yi as the credited writers of the finished opera. The music drew on folk song and regional opera, principally the Hebei folk song \"Xiao Bai Cai\" (Little Cabbage) and Shanxi yangge, and combined these with Western operatic devices such as harmony, unison, duet, and chorus, assigning each main character a musical theme.<sup>[8](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/Pad/content/202107/01/content60473.html)</sup>\n\nThe premiere for Congress delegates and central leaders took place on 28 April 1945. The next morning the Central Office conveyed three reactions from the leadership: the theme was good and timely; the art succeeded, with authentic plot and national musical style; and the landlord Huang Shiren, whose crimes were extreme, should be shot. The script was revised repeatedly afterward, and the opera played more than 30 further performances to full houses, spreading from Yan'an to [Zhangjiakou](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhangjiakou), Harbin, Beijing, and the rest of the country.<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup>\n\n**Revisions.** The opera went through four major revisions producing successive editions: the 1945 Yan'an edition revised by Ding Yi, the 1946 Zhangjiakou edition revised by He Jingzhi, a 1949 \"People's Literature and Art Series\" edition, and a 1952 finalized edition.<sup>[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)</sup> The changes moved in a consistent direction, tightening class themes and removing elements judged inconsistent with the heroine's image. Early versions included Xi'er's pregnancy by Huang Shiren and a child born in the cave; the child was dropped in the 1954 People's Literature second edition, and the 1962 revision removed the pregnancy altogether.<sup>[9](https://www.sciscanpub.com/index/index/show_article/id/4907.html)</sup> By 1950 the creators had also restructured the work from six acts to five, cutting the fourth act on Xi'er's cave life and rewriting the last two acts.<sup>[8](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/Pad/content/202107/01/content60473.html)</sup>\n\n## The 1950 film\n\nIn 1949 the head of the Central Film Bureau, Yuan Muzhi, and the arts director Chen Bo'er decided to film the stage opera, both to extend Yan'an's new culture nationwide and to support the land reform campaign then under way. The task went to the Northeast Film Studio, with Wang Bin as first director alongside Shui Hua, for whom this was a first film assignment; Wang Bin had been script-creation group leader and a director of the 1945 opera.<sup>[3](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/300229/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://culture.cnjiwang.com/ccws/202005/3124529.html)</sup>\n\nThe filmmakers avoided both a filmed stage record and a spoken drama that discarded the singing, instead fusing the opera's expressive style with cinematic realism in a feature that retains extensive song. Sources differ on the running time: 130 minutes in the studio-based filmography and Baidu Baike, 106 minutes in 1905.com, the MCLC credits, and video releases.<sup>[10](https://m.hswh.org.cn/index.php/wzzx/hsyx/2014-03-05/25127.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/300229/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2024/06/17/subtitled-version-of-white-haired-girl/)</sup> The cast included Tian Hua as Xi'er, Zhang Shouwei as Yang Bailao, Li Baiwan as Dachun, Hu Peng as Aunt Wang, and Chen Qiang as Huang Shiren.<sup>[10](https://m.hswh.org.cn/index.php/wzzx/hsyx/2014-03-05/25127.html)</sup>\n\nReleased in March 1951, the film opened simultaneously in 155 cinemas in 25 cities, with daily audiences of about 478,000, a box-office record for Chinese and foreign films at the time. At the 6th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in [Czechoslovakia](https://www.edgepedia.org/czechoslovakia) it received a Special Honor Award, and in 1957 it won a first prize in the Ministry of Culture's 1949–1955 excellent films awards.<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[12](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E7%99%BD%E6%AF%9B%E5%A5%B3%E3%80%8B/5604566?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup> In the Soviet Union's 1951 exhibition of Chinese films in 30 cities, *The White-Haired Girl* drew audiences above 12 million.<sup>[13](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-1950_No-01.pdf)</sup>\n\n## Later stage versions\n\n**Peking opera, 1958.** Ma Shaobo and Fan Junhong adapted the opera for the China Peking Opera Theatre, with Li Shaochun as Yang Bailao, Du Jinfang as Xi'er, Ye Shenglan as Dachun, and Yuan Shihai as Huang Shiren, directed by A Jia and Zheng Yiqiu. The production kept Peking opera's singing, speech, acting, and combat conventions while experimenting with new script, music, and staging choices.<sup>[10](https://m.hswh.org.cn/index.php/wzzx/hsyx/2014-03-05/25127.html)</sup>\n\n**Ballet, 1964–1965.** In 1964 a team led by veterans of Chinese ballet, including Hu Rongrong, Fu Aidi, Cheng Daihui, and Lin Yangyang, began adapting the story with Shanghai Dance School students. An early version appeared at the 5th \"Shanghai Spring\" music and dance festival in October 1964; the expanded large-scale ballet premiered at the 6th festival in 1965, and a public run at Shanghai's People's Grand Stage drew more than 400 foreign guests from 36 countries. The work fused Chinese story and Western ballet form and is counted among the eight model works of the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution) period; over six decades it has been performed more than 2,000 times.<sup>[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202501/20/content_30052842.html)</sup>\n\n**Ballet film, 1972.** Shanghai Film Studio filmed the ballet as a seven-scene work directed by Sang Hu, with Mao Huifang and Shi Zhongqin dancing the young and white-haired Xi'er respectively and Ling Guiming as Dachun.<sup>[10](https://m.hswh.org.cn/index.php/wzzx/hsyx/2014-03-05/25127.html)</sup>\n\n**Japan.** The Matsuyama Ballet Company staged the earliest ballet version in 1955 and later brought its production to China repeatedly.<sup>[1](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202501/20/content_30052842.html)</sup>\n\n## Revival and standing\n\nA 2015 revival organized by the Ministry of Culture, starring Lei Jia as Xi'er, toured nationally and compressed the opera to two and a half hours, restored a duet for Xi'er and Dachun's cave reunion, added an aria for Xi'er, and replaced the on-stage execution of Huang Shiren with delivery to a public trial, reflecting contemporary legal norms.<sup>[14](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1405453)</sup> Scholars treat the work's passage from folk legend to reportage, short story, opera, film, and ballet as a representative case of canon formation in twentieth-century Chinese arts, in which collective creation, political discourse, and popular reception interacted; the literary historian Wang Yao in 1953 called the opera a milestone in the progress of new-style opera.<sup>[15](https://eshukan.com/academic/show.aspx?cid=23&id=119250)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [歌剧《白毛女》的幕后故事, 人民网党史频道](https://dangshi.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0608/c85037-28420007.html)\n2. [惠雁冰：《白毛女》的修改之路, 《中国当代文学研究》2020年第3期, 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0522/c432714-31719923.html)\n3. [白毛女 The White-haired Girl (1950), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/300229/)\n4. [六秩《白毛女》 经典永流传, 人民日报海外版](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202501/20/content_30052842.html)\n5. [《白毛女》1951 高清修复版 (video description), YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLXcU3JLh-8)\n6. [白毛女（独家修复版）(1950), iQIYI](https://www.iq.com/wiki/zh_cn/album/%E7%99%BD%E6%AF%9B%E5%A5%B3-%E7%8B%AC%E5%AE%B6%E4%BF%AE%E5%A4%8D%E7%89%88-1950-1d9s57254l4)\n7. [曹淑杰：歌剧《白毛女》改编电影的经过, 中国吉林网](https://culture.cnjiwang.com/ccws/202005/3124529.html)\n8. [《白毛女》：\"人民文艺\"的启航, 中国作家网](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/Pad/content/202107/01/content60473.html)\n9. [吴春云：延安文艺方向下的叙事实践——以歌剧《白毛女》为中心, 影视戏剧评论 2023年第1期](https://www.sciscanpub.com/index/index/show_article/id/4907.html)\n10. [电影：白毛女（附芭蕾舞剧、京剧）, 红色文化网](https://m.hswh.org.cn/index.php/wzzx/hsyx/2014-03-05/25127.html)\n11. [Subtitled version of 'The White-Haired Girl', MCLC Resource Center](https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2024/06/17/subtitled-version-of-white-haired-girl/)\n12. [白毛女（中国1950年王滨、水华执导的剧情电影）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E7%99%BD%E6%AF%9B%E5%A5%B3%E3%80%8B/5604566?fromModule=lemma_inlink)\n13. [SSReader print, Virtual Shanghai (1950 film source PDF)](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-1950_No-01.pdf)\n14. [新版歌剧《白毛女》，观众看到了朴素和感动的力量, 澎湃新闻](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1405453)\n15. [徐兆寿：文艺创作和改编中的经典化问题——以《白毛女》为中心, 《中国文学批评》2023年第1期](https://eshukan.com/academic/show.aspx?cid=23&id=119250)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "The White-Haired Girl: Chinese story of Xi'er, based on the White-Haired Fairy legend; 1945 Yan'an opera by He Jingzhi and Ding Yi, 1950 Northeast Film Studio film, 1958 Peking opera, and 1964 Shanghai ballet, a model work."
}